flowing waters

Trophy Deer and pictures from the camp

2011-11-28T13:44:00.012-06:00

The picture of Randy's trophy deer from the previous post should have whetted your appetite for more. And there are, indeed, more trophy pictures to come. My plan was to put them together as a slide show, but my efforts to do so have been stymied by my lack of computer / blogger "know-how". So, since I suck at this computer stuff, I will place them - one by one - in this post. That is actually a good thing - many of the deer you'll see below deserve to be seen in a blown up view, and you can do that very simply by clicking on the photo.

Me and Louie. This gigantic dog was a GREAT camp dog!

Not really roughing it TOO much

These sheds and skulls are amazing. The lodge is full of them

I don't know if there is anywhere in the world that you can get pictures like these except at Ron Nemetchek's!

AND FINALLY - The individual deer taken the week of November 6 - 12 in Alberta

I'll post one final entry about the trip later this week. It will be titled "Things Worth their weight in GOLD" and will detail the stuff that actually works on a trip like this.

The Hunt Continues in Alberta

2011-11-27T19:57:00.006-06:00

This is one of the stands that I spent the day in, looking and waiting

Thursday dawned ominously - it had rained throughout the night, and the roads were coated in ice. Those of you in the northern climates are familiar with, and undoubtedly fearful of, black ice. The paved roads were impassable - solid ice. And my hunting area was a good 15 miles down a paved road before turning off onto a dirt road. So, we had to resort to Plan B. It should be noted that most of the hunters were hunting areas that were accessed by dirt roads, and these were passable if somewhat icy. We opted to drive the myriad of roads a long the woods / fields, hoping to glass deer still in the fields in the early AM.

Our plan looked goods on paper, but the total sightings for us on Thursday morning was a group of 4 does, and one gigantic coyote. I could have shot at he coyote, but had decided not to mess with them until after I filled my deer tag. Had it been a wolf, I would have unloaded my gun as he ran across a field about 200 yards away. Finally, around 10 AM, the paved roads either warmed up or the trucks came trough with sand. Either way, the road was passable and we went to our area in the forest.

I wasn't really too hopeful. The deer seemed to be moving the most between 8 - 11 AM, and I would miss that today. Still, in this area, you never knew. The guides and other hunters were all talking about the fact that the bucks seemed to be chasing does yesterday - a GREAT sign!

After our paved road / dirt road / canoe / Quad ride to the blind, I finally got set up around 11. Quiet set in as the quad left with my guide. I didn't really feel good about the afternoon. I always reach this critical point on a fishing or hunting trip. It is usually after the halfway point of the trip. I get a feeling of depression or melancholy - I know the trip's end is imminent, and I feel like nothing good will happen the rest of the trip. This is absolutely the WRONG way to approach a deer hunt from a stand - you have to feel like you can see the buck of a lifetime until the very last minute of daylight on the last day. But, it is what it is, and my late trip gloomy feeling set in.

Finally, at 2 PM, I spied 2 does and 2 fawns, directly in front of the blind, across the cutting. These were the first deer I had seen in front of the blind all week, and they took me by surprise. And, they were acting skittish. Remember - there is NO hunting pressure, so the only things that would make them skittish would be a wolf, or a buck in rut. They kept looking behind them, in the direction they had come from, and I started feeling like "MY" buck was on the way. I had my gun on them, watching the nervous does, and looking back toward the pines they had emerged from. I just KNEW this was my buck! (It's really amazing that you can go from zero (being bored by inactivity) to full throttle (Imagining that there is a buck ready to emerge, and it is YOUR deer)in a matter seconds) Their tails went up, they started on a run, and the buck busted out of the pine trees. Just like I hoped it would. I immediately saw antlers, but this happened quick. I yelled as he raced toward the does and, he stopped about 50 yards in front of the blind. I never really made a conscious decision to shoot - just put the crosshairs behind the shoulder, and squeezed the trigger. He didn't go down but took off toward the treeline. I jacked in another round and shot as he entered the woods, and lost sight of him.

I had complete confidence that the deer was dead. I assumed he was dead right at the treeline. If not there, then he would be down inside of 100 yards inside the treeline. I really had no idea how big the buck was. I knew it had decent antlers (from my perspective) but that was it. Against the instructions from the camp, I decided to go down and see what I could see. The spot where I first shot at the deer was high grass, and I found only a little blood and some light colored hair. Since I knew exactly where I saw him last, I opted to go there and continue my search rather than look for blood in the grass. As I approached the spot, I saw the body in front of me. I got my deer. Now - how big?

The answer - not as big as I had hoped. But still the biggest I had ever shot. I thought it was a 10 point when I was processing "buck" "stop him" "shoot" but, as I said, I never really got a good look.

Now, the conflicting feelings started. I was elated that I had just shot my biggest buck, but a little disappointed that I hadn't held out for a really nice, mature deer. This buck, even with a big body and decent set of antlers, was only a 2-1/2 year old deer. I had no preconceived notion about antler score - don't care at all - but I wanted to take a mature buck. It has never been about competing with other hunters for me, just as it isn't about competing with other fishermen. The buck in front of me was a great reminder of a great trip with friends so, by definition, it was a legitimate trophy. Not because of the size of the antlers, but by what it represents to me. A smile crossed my face, and didn't leave until well after I left the lodge.

Thursday ended up being the day that everything broke loose. Deer came into the lodge pretty constantly all day. And some of them were monsters by any standard. Including one of the guys in our party. He ended up shooting his buck first thing in the AM. As soon as he got in his blind - a little late due to the ice - he spotted a doe and a small buck chasing her around. While watching the two of them through his scope, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the deer he shot. One well placed shot from about 200 yards and the deer was his. Randy has shot a lot of game in his life, but this whitetail was special. It green scored 187 and will probably go a little higher due to a few 1" plus stickers near the base of the antlers. the G2 is split and perfectly symmetrical, and the buck has double brow tines on one side. The deer has a huge body - over 300 lbs dressed - and great mass. A trophy anywhere, anytime. These deer are why you come to Alberta.

Randy's buck in the foreground, with my buck in the background

By the end of the day, 10 out of the 16 hunters in camp had tagged bucks.

Next installment - the TROPHY Bucks from the trip. LOTS of photos!!

A Hunt in the Northwoods - Alberta Deer

2011-11-22T08:30:00.015-06:00

Those few remaining stragglers who care at all about this sadly neglected blog will undoubtedly be amazed and awed at the fact that A) I am actually writing something, and B) it pertains to hunting, not my usual aquatic forays, or my cat. A bit of background info is probably in order.

Way back in the day, as a youth growing up in PA, my first outdoor passion was actually hunting. I'm sure that is because my Dad was an avid hunter, primarily of small game. I have vivid memories of waiting for Dad to come home on those few November Saturdays when PA's small game season was open and running to the car to see what he got. Rabbits were always part of the day's bag, and a pheasant or 2 often found its way home with him as well. Once, and only once, he shot a ruffed grouse. We were a family of houndsmen. My grandfather lived on a farm and always had a few beagles. His hunting partner always had a few, too. Between the two of them, we would alternate dogs throughout the season and chase cottontails.

In PA, you had to be 12 years old to go hunting, and you had to pass the Hunters Safety course. I took the course at Boy Scout Summer Camp in the summer of 1972, and still remember that I got one answer wrong on the test. The question was: how far from an occupied building does the Safety Zone extend? The answer is 150 yards; I answered 250. I guess its better to be safe than sorry!! (I still find it amazing that I remember that question, and my answer, after nearly 40 years, but can't remember what I had for dinner last night) Anyway, I began hunting that Fall and hunted every available Saturday in the open season until I started college. I hunted deer on that "unofficial holiday" in PA - the Monday after Thanksgiving - with my Dad and brother until I was in my late 20's, and moved to another state. I continued to hunt deer periodically in NY, but it just wasn't the same, and I didn't have the same enthusiasm about hunting in NY. Without the family aspect of the hunting experience, I simply lost interest in hunting, and gravitated toward fishing. The last deer I shot was a small buck in NY in 1994.

My recent job change, coupled with a few personnel moves here put me in a position to fill in for a former employee on a hunt with customers to Alberta for whitetails. Well, I guess if you're going to start hunting deer again you might as well jump in with both feet! Northern Alberta is home to some of the largest whitetails in the world, both rack scores and body sizes. The hunt is a completely open land / no fences / no baiting hunt, and was scheduled for the second week of the rut hunt. Absolutely perfect timing - at least on paper. But you don't hunt deer on paper.

My first task would be to recover my rifle from my Dad. Since I had stopped deer hunting, my rifle had become the "extra" for anyone who needed it. The rifle in question is the first one rifle I ever bought - a Browning A-bolt in .280 I bought new in (I believe) 1986 and mounted a Leopold Vari - X II 2 - 7x scope on it. It has been a tack driving machine since the day I bought it. I am a fairly good rifle shooter, but this is the only gun I've ever owned that I could consistently shoot groups at 100 yards with bullet holes touching each other. Of course, I hadn't shot it over 15 years, and I was using new ammo (Hornady 129 grn. GMX), so I needed to get it sighted in.

As you can see, it still shoots great. These were my last 2 shots at 100 yds

Luckily, I am a huge advocate of layering high-tech undergarments to ward off extreme cold, so I was stocked up on UnderArmour Coldgear and Medalist. The rut hunts in northern Alberta are notoriously cold, and the colder the better for the hunting. It is not uncommon to be hunting with highs that never break 0, and can be as low as -20F. We would be hunting out of elevated blinds with Mr. Heaters, but those temperatures are cold no matter what you do.

The excitement building up to the hunt was two-fold for me: first, I have always admired the huge body size and potentially gnarly, beat up, thick mass of the antler configurations of these northern bucks. It's all personal preference, but I've always liked them more than the white, thinner, more symmetrical antlers of the typical Texas deer. Second, this would be the first time I would actually be hunting deer that were unpressured. My upbringing of PA and, to a lesser extent, NY deer hunting meant the only times I was hunting deer was when there were virtual hordes of hunters out in the woods, and the deer were pressured. They were always on the move, being pushed from hunter to hunter. The accepted way to "get your buck" was to sit and outlast the other hunters. If you still hunted (my preferred way) you were basically just moving deer into other hunters. This was especially true on the opening day and the few weekends, and these were the only times I could hunt. The Alberta hunt would be in vast areas of mixed farmland, edges, or boreal forest. And the deer are virtually unpressured, so you are hunting them in their natural state, doing whatever it is they do naturally. In the rut, that means big bucks chasing does. At least I hoped it would.

We arrived at Edmonton airport on Sunday Nov. 6. a 2 hour drive should have put us into camp in late afternoon, but ... One of our party was missing his duffel bag, and it contained all his warm clothes. (They would show up Monday night at the Lodge) So a stop at Canadian Tire (as well as one of the seemingly million or so liquor stores) and we were off. We finally got to Ron Nemetchek's North River Lodge. after dark.

THE HUNT

Hunting here is done primarily in elevated blinds. The blinds are covered, and each one has a propane bottle hanging from an edge, which is attached to a Mr. Heater unit inside the blind. You are generally in the stand from before daylight until after dark. If yo absolutely can not sit in on place for that amount of time, your guide will move you or take you out on the seemingly endless dirt roads glassing for deer n the fields. While you will see many deer from the truck this way, everyone agrees that the biggest deer come from the stands. And BIG is an understatement. The body size of these deer is huge. It is a genetic trait that allows them to survive, and prosper, in this harsh, insanely cold climate from December until April. The only problem is thatteh deer have such huge body sizes that sometimes a massive trophy rack doesn't look so big because the body size is so immense.

Many people come here looking for specific B&C scores and won't shoot anything under a certain number - 170, for example. I had no such criteria on this hunt. I simply wanted to enjoy the hunt, enjoy the camaraderie, and, if the opportunity presented itself, shoot a mature buck. I don't even know, or care , what a 150 is. In addition to a deer, your tag allows you to take unlimited wolves and coyotes.

Finally, it is worth noting that there is more diversity of wildlife in this area than I ever thought imaginable. In addition to the whitetails, there are : mule deer, moose, elk, black bear (in hibernation now), wolves, coyotes, martin, fisher, lynx, snowshoe rabbits.

My guide had me hunting in the boreal forest, which is where I wanted to be. The fields in this area are absolutely huge - many over a mile (or multiple miles) long and wide. I felt more comfortable in an area with a more limited range. That being said, I could still have shooting opportunities out to 300 yards on the cuttings I was hunting.

The 3 views from the blind on Monday. Across the cutting was 80-100 yards.

The gas line I hunted had 6 blinds on the cutting that stretched over a mile and a half long. I was the only person hunting this area all week. On Monday, I saw 2 deer all day - both small bucks (a 4 point and a 6 point) The deer came out on the cutting at 9 and 1. But, the area just felt like it was ready to break loose. You always felt that, at any moment, a magnificent buck might wander out, or chase some does through the cutting.

Moonrise from the stand - late afternoon

Aaahh - the Mr. Heater!

Monday evening found no deer brought to camp. A few were passed on, but no shots fired.

Tuesday brought more promise. I was back in a different stand - same area, though - before dawn. As the sun finally came up, I saw a lone deer feeding in the grass about 150 yards below me. I ended up watching that deer for about a half hour - he was a small 6 point. Not even close to being a shooter.

In the picture below you see the fields in the distance. They are actually across a river and over 800 yards away. The week prior some hunters had seen a "record book class buck" in that field!

After the small morning buck, things were quiet for a while until about 11. A pair of does came in the cutting near the area the buck had been in. They kept looking behind them, and I did the same, expecting to see a buck on the ir trail. Nothing. about 5 minutes after they got through the grass, a lynx walked along the same trail they were on. Cool - my first wild lynx sighting! Finally, around 2 pm, I spied another lone deer in the same area. I put the glasses up and saw that he was a buck, but was really unsure of the size of the rack. He kept his head down as he walked further away from me. Finally, at the edge of the woods in the picture above, he held his head up against the dark green background. The rack was wider than the ears, and higher than I first thought. Still, it wasn't one of the "you'll know it when you see it " bucks. I let him walk. Would I regret it?? (2 deer were brought into camp on Tuesday)

A little afternoon snow

Wednesday found me back in the stand above the area I hunted on Tuesday. Nothing showed at daybreak this time. At 10, 2 does came in close to the stand, but no bucks followed. From 11 - 2, I either caught glimpses of deer or was glassing deer fairly regularly - maybe a half dozen deer total. Then, while glassing a doe, a big buck walked in my sight picture. Dark , heavy rack. "you'll know it when you see it" - I knew it. But - he moved quickly into the woods and I lost sight of him. I caught a glimpse of antlers one more time, but no possibility of a shot. 2 more deer were brought in on Wednesday, making the take for the camp 4 for 16 so far in the week. One point to note : my party had to leave on Friday night to catch early Saturday flights. The usual hunt goes through Sat. So, at this point, we were down to 2 days left to hunt.

Frosty Morning!

The area I saw the big buck on Wed. He was as far out as you can see down the left side of the picture along the tree line - a solid 200 yards.

[PART 2 to follow]

A Real, honest-to-God post. Soon.

2011-11-18T10:31:00.003-06:00

OK, it's been a while (a LONG while, actually). But, I have the makings of a post. A real one, too. And - it's not my usual fishing-type post.

What could it be???

An actual hunting post. A real story. And, it includes my first buck taken in 17 years. (Please note that I haven't hunted deer for 17 years, so the drought was understandable)

Part 1 coming this weekend.

So. MD Festivals

2011-10-16T16:57:00.004-05:00

It's bee n too long since my last post, but sometimes that's just the way things fall. We've been trying our best to enjoy all the aspects of our new home. That means I haven't done much (any) fishing, but I have not been sitting still. We have been very busy exploring the area, whether it be finding new restaurants, visiting historical sites, or attending one of the many community oriented festivals that seem to abound in So. MD.

These festivals range from large scale concerts to regionally important annual events - Patuxent River Appreciation Days, for example. There are various war re-enactments, and loads of smaller church centered dinners - crab and beef, or stuffed ham and oyster dinners. We will DEFINITELY be taking in some of these over the cooler months ahead.

But, today was The St. Mary's County Oyster Festival, which features the National Oyster Cook-off and the World Oyster Shucking Championships. With beautiful weather, I just had to attend, and drag my wife along. Literally drag, because, if she was starving to death, she would NOT eat a raw oyster. Or a cooked one, for what it's worth. I, on the other hand, love them in all their delectable forms - raw, grilled, steamed, or fried. Bring em on!

The festival was chocl full of food vendors (my kind of festival!) and also featured a juried craft show with some outstanding local artisans. Entertainment was featured as well. But the food, specifically the oysters, were the real stars today. (Although the pit cooked beef looked outstanding) My samplings today included oyster stew, oyster shooters (2 chilled oysters in a cup, some cocktail sauce, a splash of hot sauce, and a bit of cold beer. Outstanding!), and a local favorite, a stuffed ham sandwich. Not really sure what this consists of, but it WAS good. My wife got french fries and ice cream. Here are some of the goodies.

The Stuffed Ham Sandwich

Oyster Stew

The wonderful Oyster Shooter

The Oysterfest King!!

Not much of a "Guard Cat"

2011-09-19T09:20:00.005-05:00

I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know the hummingbirds are buzzing around, right behind her.

I guess it's a good thing that we didn't get her from the Pet Rescue with the intention of being a Guard Cat - we'd have been sorely disappointed. But she's very good at shedding hair. And eating.

Quick Caterpillar post

2011-09-12T15:13:00.006-05:00

We've been staying busy here in So. Maryland, doing everything but fishing. The rockfish fishing should get nothing but better as the months go on, so plan on reading SOMETHING that has to do with fishing in the near future.

We spent Saturday afternoon at our company picnic. My wife and I fancy ourselves as keen observers of the subtle and minutiae in the ecosystems. In actuality, she's probably better than I am. Anyway, she spotted this very cool caterpillar on a stone path, so I had to take it's picture. It measured probably 3" long and was as fat as my thumb. Then the fun began - I know nothing about caterpillar ID.

I went online with my picture and, after working my way through several pages of the seemingly endless varieties of caterpillars, I found the identity of our mystery fellow. A White-Lined Sphinx moth. Which, in layman's terms, is one of my favorite critters at the butterfly bush - a hummingbird moth!!

Photo by Raymond Christensen

The caterpillar / butterfly / moth group could take a person years to figure out. I'm not ready to dedicate that kind of time, but I DO think they're pretty cool.

Finally, a little bit of fishing in MD

2011-09-04T15:43:00.007-05:00

I knew I would get around to fishing sooner or later (hopefully sooner) but the loose ends of this moving thing are never ending. About 1/4 mile from our house is a pond in our development. Looks to be about an acre and a half. Shallow looking - a typical bass / 'gill / maybe catfish spot. I've seen people fishing there with some frequency, so I assume there is SOMETHING in these waters. Recently I got to try it out and see for myself.

The pond at the new house. The debris in the water in the foreground is hurricane junk clogging teh outflow pipe; the fallen tree in the back of the pond is from the hurricane as well

My first thought when fishing small waters is: catch SOMETHING. Anything. Nothing fits the bill for this better than the Cubby Mini-mites I used in IL. Suspended under a weighted bobber, they simply catch fish. Any fish.

the first MD fish!

The first evening out, a week after the hurricane, I managed to get a few small sunfish. Not much action, but something. I also talked to a guy who said there are bass in the pond to 5#. Even if they're 3 pounders, that's OK with me. Last nite, I hit it for 20 minutes and used only a 1/8 oz. buzzbait. Got 2 hits and landed 2 small (12") largemouth.

Pond bass. Bigger ones to follow (I hope)

Nothing to plan a trip around, but at least its a beginning. Next up will be my initial forays into the striper fishing of Fall. Since it will be from shore, I have no predisposed ideas of any success, but I am very anxious to give it a try.

Earthquake, Hurricane, and some yard critters

2011-08-23T19:45:00.003-05:00

Today I experienced my third earthquake. The other 2 - one in PA, and one in IL - were very minor. Both felt like a train was passing by the house. Today's VA quake was a real one. I work about 45-50 miles from the epicenter of the 6.0 earthquake that hit VA today. The walls shook in the building for about 15 seconds (seemed like forever), stuff fell off of the top shelves, and I dove under the desk. People who were outside at the time said the building was swaying, and the cars in the lot were jumping. Not being a seasoned earthquake veteran, it was a little scary. But, now that it's over, it was actually pretty cool. (Since no one got hurt)

Now I see that Hurricane Irene is strengthening and is likely to hit NC on Sat. That will put it over my new house by late Sunday. YEAHH - 2 natural disasters in 6 days. Awesome.

So, after they closed our building for the day, I got home and sat outside with my wife to see a plethora of birds hitting the feeders. It was insane - hummingbirds, finches, cardinals, a titmouse, a nuthatch, and we saw a bald eagle and 2 ospreys overhead. I tried to get a hummingbird picture that was a actually identifiable as such - no easy task for me! So, here are a few pics from this afternoon.

What a beautiful day it turned out to be. Please click on teh pictures for larger images.

A juvenile 5 lined skink - apparently pretty well fed.

More Yard Critters

2011-08-21T20:56:00.003-05:00

Short and sweet post - just a few of the critters I keep stumbling across in the yard. Btw - the spiders here are freaking HUGE!

I'll keep posting as I keep getting pictures. Cool weather is right around the corner and that means a few months of striper fishing!

Click on any of th ephotos for a larger image.

Starting over in Maryland

2011-08-17T20:56:00.005-05:00

The move to Maryland has been about as efficient as I could have imagined, but I STILL hate moving. Aside from the physical hassles, though, there are parts of the move that have me very excited. I realize that going from Illinois to Maryland isn't exactly the ecological equivalent of going from the Amazon to the Antarctic, for example, but the flora and fauna of Maryland are substantially different from what we had in Illinois. And I am excited to discover and photograph all of it!

To begin with, we are now on an acre that is surrounded by mature hardwood trees. Shagbark hickory, tulip poplar - large, impressive trees. These trees are home to their own ecosystems that I didn't have in Illinois. We lived in a "cornfield community" - build the houses in a cornfield. No mature trees. Not much variation in the birdlife. We saw ONE squirrel in 7 years in our yard - and I think it was VERY lost! We usually had one hummingbird per summer meander through our yard. Here we had 4 at our feeder the first evening we put it out.

There were no lizards in our area before. Now the skinks are daily sightings. We have bluebirds in the front yard.

I am REALLY enjoying the diversity here. And that's just the yard - the Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent River are each a few miles away and offer a myriad of wildlife to enjoy. I see a nest of ospreys every day when I cross the bridge on the Patuxent River. Bald eagles are common as are all the shorebirds.

I'll certainly get back into the original focus of this blog - fish and fishing - as I'm here longer, but for the time being, you'll have to be content with the yard critters.

Hope you enjoy the photos, and sorry for the long sabbatical.

The first week were in the house, my wife spied this 4' black rat snake crawling up one of our trees while we were sitting on the deck.

This orb spider is HUGE - it has to be 4 inches from front to back. There are some seriously big spiders here!

We have a big butterfly bush at the deck in the back of the house. It is loaded with butterflies, many of which are not familiar to me. I plan to post a bunch of butterfly pictures.

Finally, my plans include some hummingbird pictures. The ones I've taken so far are so bad I can't post them. Bear with me - we'll get some eventually.

Testing 1 - 2 - 3: Time to re-emerge from my hibernation

2011-08-08T15:16:00.003-05:00

I have a few pictures to download, and I'll get back to posting on theis blog. I know there are MILLIONS of you out there holding your breath, just waiting to read the next installment of the never ending drivel that is Flowing Waters.

OK - probably not - but I'll be back soon anyway!

Joe

The last day fishing Illinois

2011-06-09T17:33:00.005-05:00

The ponds we fished

I really didn't plan to get out again on Illinois waters after the final day on my ponds, but you never know how things will work out. A neighbor's mom and step-dad have become 2 of our closest friends since we located here in IL. He is a fanatical waterfowler - he is retired and hunts EVERY DAY of the waterfowl season. He is a member of a Hunt/ fish club nearby, and likes to get out every once in a while for some bass fishing on their club waters. I was given an invitation during my 2 weeks between jobs, and I managed to squeeze in one more morning on the water.

This is the second time I've been on this water with Reid. The ponds are bigger than the ones I fish - we fish these out of a 12' jon boat. The water is clear and has great weed growth. I always feel like we should catch more than we do, but it is a great place.

The morning we fished, it was sunny and clear, with a high of near 90. We got a few hits on Senko-styled worms, but I finally "unlocked" the secret for the day with a pearl Zoom fluke. Which is sort of interesting, because I almost NEVER use flukes! We ended up catching 16 largemouth. Most were small, but Reid got one nice one (see picture).

Spending a beautiful morning with a friend on a neat piece of water is about the best way to end your fishing career in Illinois. I think I 'll quit while I'm ahead!

Bluegill beds near the shoreline

A bittersweet evening on the ponds

2011-05-22T17:18:00.006-05:00

Saturday evening my wife, son and I decided to go out to the ponds and see how things were looking. The bass should have spawned by now but would still be aggressive along the shoreline. the evening was nice (weather-wise) for a change - no tornadic thunderstorms, no cold rain. We went to the upper pond first. This is the bass and gill pond. We were the only ones there and the surface was calm. I decided to see if I could catch some bass on an old reliable lure. (More on that in a bit.)

The fish were right where I expected them to be - from 1' - 5' off the banks. And I could see by the swirls they were chasing gills away from their beds. I went with a topwater the entire time, and I really did forget how many fish I caught. All largemouth. Some smaller males and a bunch of nice , spawned out females. These fish would have gone another pound to pound and a half heavier a couple of weeks ago. Suffice to say I got around 20 largemouth - enough to tear up my thumb unhooking them.

Now - about the lure I used. You can see it in the mouth of the 2 bass I have posted here . The first person who comments below with the correct name of the lure - name of the bait and the lure manufacturer - will win a new Lucky Craft Pointer! 1 comment per person.

We decided to go to the lower pond and see what was happening there. This is the mixed bag spot - cats, bass, gills, crappie, trout, walleye. The way to find out who is hungry here by throwing a 1/16 oz. jig head with a 2" grub - everything eats it. Tonight was a really odd mixture of fish - maybe the strangest I've ever seen. I ended up with 14 walleye, 9 crappie, 2 gills, and 1 small bass. No trout or cats. A truly bizarre mixture, but fun nonetheless. I only fished here for around an hour and a half, until it got dark.

So - why the title - a bittersweet evening?? Well, I recently (last week) accepted a job offer from a different company and am in the whirlwind process of selling our house, buying a new one, moving the family, and starting a new job.

[HEY - that's right - some of you said you wanted to buy my house when I posted pictures from the pond across the street. Good bass fishing! Here's your chance!!!!]

Getting back to the point of the post - the ponds are located on a club property to a hunt club my current employer is a member of. When my last day passes - this coming Friday - I won't be allowed access to the ponds anymore. This may have been my last chance to fish these glorious ponds. Oh well you'll have to bear with me as I embark on learning some new areas and fisheries. I told you this would be a journey rather than a destination. And the journey continues!

The sun setting on the ponds, both literally and figuratively

Ponds, ponds, ponds

2011-05-11T09:14:00.004-05:00

Sunday evening at around 6:30 - after spending a full doing whatever it is we all do on the weekends - I asked my wife "So - what do you want to do? It IS Mother's Day, after all" I was tired and really didn't feel like doing much of anything. Until ... her response - let's go to the ponds.

It's amazing how quickly I can spring into high gear when it involves something I want to do.

Within minutes we were driving to the ponds to get in an hour of fishing. The evening was beautiful and the ponds were calm. I had decided, even before we got out of the car, that I would spend the evening trying to entice bass on topwaters, even though I hadn't had a topwater hit this spring. Well, sometimes your intuition is just right. Sunday was one of those nights.

I started out with a 1/4 oz. white buzzbait and started fan casting an area of 2 to 2-1/2' deep. Had one blow up on the bait on the second cast but missed him. I'll spare you the play-by-play, but suffice it to say that the fish were ON. I landed 12 bass in an hour, from 7 pm to 8 pm. White buzzbait, Sammy, and a Lucky Craft wakebait - not sure of the model - that runs just subsurface and throws out a big V-wake. Its really close to a topwater because the visual strikes are just like a topwater - the bass blow them out of the water. The fish were a combination of egg-laden females and smaller , aggressive males. They were not quite up on the banks yet but, with yesterday's 90 degree temps, I wouldn't be surprised to see them tight to the bedding areas this week. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

And, yes Howard - it IS a nice shirt!!

I also tried something I had never done before - I tried to get some topwater strike video. Results were mediocre but i think I got a few good hits captured. I'll play around with those tonite and post them as a separate posting if they're worth watching.

The next 2 weeks should be gangbusters - get out and get after those fish! Here is a poor, low light shot of the field full of deer we passed on our way out.

Catching Dinner over Lunch

2011-05-03T14:13:00.003-05:00

Even though it was fairly chilly today, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get after a few fish over the lunch hour. Jesse and I went to the ponds with the intent of catching - and keeping - some fish for his dinner tonite.

Started on the upper pond. Lots of gills, all just short of being prime filleting size. They were JUST a little smaller than we like to clean, so back they went. Small grubs were the answer on UL rigs. We got a fair number of bass - mostly males. Jesse got one egg-laden female that was probably 2-1/2 pounds, and I had a big fish break me off in the rocks.

30 minutes down, 30 to go. And no fish in the cooler.

The lower pond held a little bit of everything. Jesse continued casting grubs while I went to a small purple and white tube. ***Newsflash *** - trout like purple and white tubes. A lot. We caught fish pretty consistently for the next 20 minutes. Jesse put a nice crappie on ice, and I followed that up with a crappie, 'gill, and walleye for the box. I also got 3 trout in quick succession, and a bunch of undersized 'eyes.

So - I put 3/4 of the fish in Jesse's cooler. NOT that I'm a fish counter - I'm just saying. I'm thinking that a half pound of morels would be a nice gesture of appreciation.

Sorry no pics - didn't feel like pulling out the cell phone

FINALLY the ponds turn on

2011-04-30T21:53:00.003-05:00

The ponds I frequent have been slow to give up their treasures this Spring. With the very late warming trend and a lot of cold rain, the spring seems to be compressed into a very short window this year. Which means - you better hit it hard when it gets good.

And I think it is poised to get good in northern Illinois.

My wife, son and I went to the ponds at 4:30 this afternoon. We fished the lower pond for about an hour and upper one for maybe 45 minutes. It was good - real good.

The lower pond is the one with the mixed bag of fish - rainbow trout, walleye, largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, channel cat. The upper pond has bass, gills, and cats. Joey hung out and explored stuff on the lower pond, while Stacy and I threw UL spin gear with 1/32 oz. jigheads with 2" Lindy Munchies grubs. In the hour we fished, we landed 7 trout, 4 walleye, 1 crappie, a pile of gills. Hits were frequent and you never knew what was on the end of the line. Stacy suggested we try the upper pond to see if the bass were biting up there. Even though all we had along was UL gear, we went up to try the upper pond.

Well, the fish were ON up there, too. I threw a small (1/8 oz.) spinnerbait while Stacy and Joey threw 1/16 oz. Beetle Spins. the gills and pumpkinseeds were bigger than I have seen recently, and the bass were holding about 10'-15' off of the rock edges that they use to spawn. Most of the bass caught were smaller males, but I got a few nice ones, including one BIG egg-loaded female. An absolute blast on an UL spin outfit!! We probably landed 30 panfish and 12-15 bass.

(Sorry for the picture quality (or lack thereof) - its from my son's phone)

If you have ponds nearby, get out as often ans you can over the next month. It's FINALLY time to capitalize on the pond fish!

Easter Bass

2011-04-24T20:13:00.003-05:00

Just a short note about a couple of bass from this afternoon.

The weather stabilized and it looks like another week of washouts ahead, so I walked across the street at 4:30 this afternoon to fish the subdivision pond. This is the pond that usually frustrates me but holds some good fish. I've finally figured out one pretty sure thing about the pond - when the water pours into it, the bass move to the inflow. Its really the only time I can consistently catch anything here.

The water wasn't at a high point today but it was still moving in pretty good. The fish I caught were tight to the inflow. Both came on a small swim jig, and I missed another one. OK for a half hour. Both the bass were nice and chunky - around 15-16".

Meow the cat says "I can't stand anymore of these fish pictures"

A FUN day of fishing on the FLA coast

2011-04-15T21:44:00.006-05:00

I had the opportunity on Wednesday to sneak in a day of fishing on a 4 day travel week. A longtime friend and business associate set me up with two of the guys who work at the Lake Mary FL Gander Mtn store for a day on the water. Chris and Jerry couldn't have been more perfect fishing companions. Before we went, i talked to Chris and told him I didn't care what we caught or how we caught them - I just wanted to get out.

Jerry at the Bait dock

Chris tries for some mullet- no dice on this throw

We met at 5:30 and proceeded to to New Smyrna Beach on the east coast of FL - just south of Daytona. We launched Chris' Cobia and motored out to the inlet. We were greeted by swarms of bluefish. LOTS of bluefish. So many bluefish I was catching them on both the front and back treble of the Bomber crankbait I was using. Jerry picked up 2 nice Spanish Mackeral in the same area. I believe that, if we had stayed there , we could have caught 500 blues. Great fun on light spinning tackle. So - why didn't we stay there?? Yours truly gets a little (occasionally a LOT) queasy on rough water. While this was a very calm day, the combination of the outgoing tide and the ocean currents made the boat bounce around quite a bit. I could feel myself getting queasy and Chris graciously decided to leave biting fish and move into calmer water inside the breakwall. And - we all know Rule #1 of Fishing is: NEVER leave biting fish.

Porpoises following the boat

We moved into an area where Chris knew there were some nice sheepshead and starting throwing fiddler crabs into the rocks. It took a little while to get the boat anchored correctly in the strong outgoing tide and adjust the weight so we were deep enough, but we figured it out, and Chris got a big sheepshead.

Chris with a nice sheepshead

Jerry with a Spanish Mackeral

So - why didn't we stay there and catch more?? We had to help rescue a sunken boat. Yep - a sunken boat. We all watched as a boat with a man, woman, and an older woman (one of the folks mother?) motored out to our area. We remarked that the old fiberglass boat looked like it had about 4" of freeboard on the back of the boat. Then - the man anchored off the back of the boat. That boat filled up and sank to the bottom within a minute. The 3 of them were floating - no life jackets in site - toward another boat who grabbed them and pulled them aboard. We set off to pick up whatever we could of their floating remains -a few tackle boxes, a cooler, 2 oars. We gave it to them on the other boat and the Sheriff boat showed up, so we moved on.

Floating debris frome the sunken boat

We moved into an area where Chris had done well in the past. by the time our shrimp had run out, we caught: bluefish,Spanish mackeral, sheepshead, grouper, mangrove snapper, sea trout, ladyfish, pinfish (Jerry was the pinfish king), pigfish, and jack crevalle. We saw rays, porpoises, and 2 manatees. It was an absolutely great way to spend a day on the water with new friends. I can't thank these guys enough for taking me out.

Trout

Grouper

Mangrove Snapper

This is my favorite kind of fishing - go out and see what bites. Nothing fancy, no pre-conceived notions. Just going fishing. It was terrific.

The trip in review - Bass in Dixie

2011-03-28T21:36:00.012-05:00

My Dad, son and I met in Birmingham at 9:30 AM on Thursday. This in and of itself was no small accomplishment - Joey and I were flying down from Chicago while Dad came from Baltimore with a connection through Nashville. I figured the odds of all the flights landing on time were somewhere between zero and 10 percent. So - it was a good way to start our trip. After a 2 hour drive we pulled into the property where we would spend the next couple of days. We unpacked, ate a quick bite, and got a boat down to the lake. This particular lake is about 40 acres. It is the same one I fished last year with Joey and his broken arm. The lake died in July 2006 - it oxygen depleted and all the fish died. My friend drained it, put in a bunch of subsurface improvements (humps, spawning flats filled with pea gravel, ditches)and restocked the ponds with F1/ Northern hybrid largemouth bass and brim. He added shad and crawfish, and let it do what ponds (and their bass) do. Which is grow. My son caught a bass just over 8 pounds there 2 years ago. That fish was not yet 3 years old. Last year I caught 2 that I estimated at 9 and 10 pounds (digital scale crapped out) So, this year I was thinking about 10-12 pound fish, and had reason to do so. The owner got an 11-5 here the weekend before I got here.

Our day started out windy, and a bit cool for Alabama this time of year. Tough boat control, and the wind made it very hard to fish worms. The best baits on these bodies of water have historically been 10" worms rigged Texas -style, 5" and 7" Senko-style worms rigged whacky style, spinnerbaits, and Rattle-type baits - Rattltraps, LVR's, Red Eye Shad. With the wind blowing, we opted for the LVR's and some rattling crankbaits (Rapala Clackn Crank). Dad started the action by hooking, and losing, a BIG bass. I estimated it at around 8 pounds. We found a good pod of fish and would catch a bunch, then loose them. Move around until we found them again. We hoped for the wind to lay down, but it never did. The low temp on Thursday nite was 39 - cold for this area. Our tally for Thursday afternoon / evening was around 60 fish. Instead of the digital scale - which failed last year - I went with a boga grip this year. Not accurate to the ounce, but very good to the quarter pound. My best this day went 7-1/2 pounds, Dad's was around 6-1/2, and Joey around 5. Nice fish by any standards. I was really hoping that the wind would lay down for Day 2. Friday was our whole day on the water - Thursday evening was just a warmup.

Dad's first good bass of the trip

Dad unhooking one of Joey's bass

Dad's best fish from Day 1 - 6-1/2 pounds

Joey's best of Day 1 - around 5 pounds

My best of the day, and the trip - 7-1/2 pounds

Day 2 dawned with the wind still ripping. We waited a little longer than usual to get out on the water - I wanted to let the water warm up little from the overnite lows. The wind stayed strong until about 11 AM, when it finally laid down and stayed calm.

This is a perfect opportunity to rave about a product that made fishing in the wind not only do-able, but productive and enjoyable. The boat we used had a Minnkota Terranova trolling motor equipped with an i-Pilot. You can see the remote device I have hanging from the lanyard around my neck on the pictures. This remote plots courses, controls the speed, and, best of all, has a 1-touch option known as Spot-Lock. When you press this button, the unit locks onto the GPS coordinate at that spot, and keeps the trolling motor within a 5' area of that spot, compensating for current and wind to keep the boat in that spot. It is a lifesaver in the wind. I can STRONGLY recommend this product!

Joey taking a morning nap on the boat

A few nice fish from Friday morning

Friday produced a lot of fish, but the fishing was sporadic. And we weren't able to find the really big fish. Please don't take that comment as an indication that the fishing wasn't good - I unhooked so many fish my thumb was bleeding! That's a good indication of good fishing. Dad boated a bass around 7 pounds, and Joey went on a half hour tear, taking 3 big bass from 4:30 - 5:00. Dad took almost all of his fish on the same lure - a 1/2 oz. Strike King Red Eye Shad in bluegill color. Joey got most of his on a Lucky Craft LVR in chartreuse. I fish everything in my bag. The most fun I had was when I got a buzzbait bite working around the timber on the islands. Nothing huge, but topwater is great no matter how big. Got a few on spinnerbaits, a bunch on a Rapala Clack 'n Crank, and a bunch on worms after the wind subsided. The sunset was a beautiful way to end the day.

Joey got these 3 within a half hour late Friday Afternoon

My best Friday bass

Dad's best Friday bass

Sunning turtles

A great sunset to end the day

One final note on the second day - in addition to fishing so hard that my tendinitis flared up in my left elbow (trust me - there is NO sympathy from home when I tell my wife I have tendinitis from too much fishing) I did manage to hook, and lose, the biggest bass I hooked on this trip - probably the biggest I've ever hooked. At the end of the day on Friday, we were coming back to the launch. There is a long dock and a small boat "house" at the end. One side of the boathouse has a sheet of corrugated metal on it to protect a boat from the wind and waves. I picked up a spinning rod that had a 7" Strike King Ocho on it and cast into the corner of the metal and the wooden dock. A bass hit it like a freight train and just tore under the metal. I could feel the line scraping the metal and knew I was in trouble. There was absolutely no way I could stop that fish with the MH rod I was using. After an all-too-brief encounter, the line parted on the leader. This fish was way out of the league of the fish we had been catching. I'd give it an honest estimate of 12 pounds and wouldn't be surprised if it was bigger. Tough fish to lose, but I was never in the game with this one. And - I was fishing 30# braid with a 17# flourocarbon leader.

We woke up Saturday - our last 1/2 day to fish - to an approaching storm front. Dark clouds, high winds (a few hours after we left, there were tornado warnings just to the North of where we fished) We decided to fish a different lake this day. I have taken 2 of my three biggest bass ever from this particular lake. It is loaded with bass and has a healthy population of big brim. The only problem I've ever had on this lake is working through the small (2-3 pound) bass to try to stick a big one. Saturday was pretty much like that.

We started off catching fish right away. All "cookie-cutter" sized - 2-3# - but lots of them. They were tight to the banks and hit anything thrown at them. Including topwaters. We caught fish pretty much at will, and lost count of how many we got. We also got some big brim - the ones that hit bass-sized crankbaits. I got a chance to throw a bait I had never thrown before - a Quad-bladed Strike King spinnerbait. The fish tore it up - they actually mauled and bent the arm so badly I had to replace it. Even with the wind, it was a great way to end the trip.

Here is a sampling of the fish from Saturday

Another great trip for bass, and I really needed to get away from the stress of the job. Now I can't wait for things to break loose on the area ponds and the local season to open up in a big way. I'm sure you'll be seeing more from me in the coming months as I key in on the local bass and panfish bites.

Oh yeah - the Cat part! My wife called Joey's cell phone and, in her best "cat voice", left him the following message: "Joey, this is Meow. I heard you were going fishing, and I want you to bring home some fish for me. Don't come home without my fish." When he listened to the message that evening, I asked him who it was. "Meow called me - she wants us to bring home fish" Never batted an eye.

And, as always - thanks for reading

Back from 'Bama

2011-03-27T21:00:00.003-05:00

I got back yesterday from my Annual (although I missed one year) bass fishing trip to Alabama. This year was especially enjoyable since my Dad and son both accompanied me. For the newer readers who aren't familiar with this little jaunt, I have the opportunity to fish some private ponds / lakes (45 - 70 acres) owned by a Business Associate of mine. These are not pay-to-fish lakes - they are strictly private property that get fished an average of less than once per week per lake. And they have World-Class bass fishing in them. I like to make full disclosure that these are not public waters, but I make absolutely no apologies for being able to fish there. On the contrary - I love it here! I've caught my biggest bass by far here, and usually a lot of fish as well.

I'll post a full, detailed post this week, but, in a nutshell - it was windy and cool for over half the time we fished. Tough to control the boat. Since I had caught 2 over 10 pounds last year, I sort of expected to do the same, or better, this year. Our best was 7-1/2 pounds. But we got a LOT of fish from 3-1/2 to 5 pounds, and all of us went over 7.

It was a GREAT trip again. Here's one teaser pic. And , no, it's not my cat. (But she'll probably show up on the recap!)

My Dad and Son wth one of Dad's bass

Making the Best of a bad situation

2011-03-22T13:12:00.005-05:00

A while back, the OBN issued a Writing Prompt asking for stories from the Outdoors that revolved around "Damaged Goods". While I try to limit the amount of actual damage I do to my gear, it does happen every once in a while. My most memorable one wasn't because of anything spectacular , but rather the resourcefulness in not letting the misfortune ruin the day.

Back in the late-90's, I was in northern PA for a couple of days of fly fishing with my small stream buddy, Dave Messics. Dave is the one guy I fish with who can go with me for wild brookies, and we fish together perfectly on tiny streams, leapfrogging each other the whole way up a drainage. Those of you who fish these tiny streams know how rare it is to find someone like that.

This particular day, we were fishing the Right Branch of Young Woman's Creek in Clinton County. We took his truck, parked at the point we wanted to take out, and walked the dirt road back downstream for a solid 2-3 miles. We would spend the afternoon working the water back upstream to the truck. I had my favorite small -medium stream trout rod along - a Winston 8', 4 wt. TMF (Tom Morgan Favorite). We trudged through the woods to get to ur starting point and rigged up. I gave Dave the first run and started going upstream. When I got to the spot I wanted to fish, I needed to step down of a small rise to get to the stream. I stepped onto what I thought was the ground. It was not. I went into a dry wash filled with leaves and fell forward onto my face. Even then, I held the rod out to avoid smacking it on something (I heal - the rod doesn't) Well thought out strategy, but poor implementation. The rod broke in 2, about 6" above the cork grip.

Shit!

Now what do I do? I have 2+ miles of beautiful water in front of me that I have to walk past to get the car. My day was shot. Or was it?? I still had a little over 7' of fly rod at my disposal. I put the reel and broken seat / grip in my pocket, and proceeded to fish the rest of the day. I would strip the necessary length of line off of the reel in my pocket. I couldn't shoot much line, but found that I could do pretty well with a fixed length of line. (In retrospect, this may have been my own personal introduction to Tenkara fishing!) And - I caught trout! Wild brookies. Probably not as many as I would have with a functioning fly rod, but I caught fish nonetheless. And I 'll never forget these fish due to the extenuating circumstances. It ended up being a pretty cool day on the water.

Btw - the rod got repaired by Winston and is still my favorite fly rod

Winner of the Fly Fishing Giveaway Extravaganza!!

2011-03-20T20:21:00.003-05:00

It's my favorite time - like Christmas, almost. I subscribe to the theory that it is better to give than to receive. And it is time to consult with the mighty RNG to determine the winner of the Fly fish stuff.

But first, I needed to do a little "housecleaning". Since the thread brought 23 comments, but only 15 of them were from people who actually entered the contest, I went through the comments of only those entering and numbered them. They are:

1 - Bill
2 - Owl
3 - Nontypical Pursuit
4 - River Damsel
5 - Brook Trout
6 - Shoreman
7 - Justin
8 - Chris S
9 - Leigh
10 - Bigerrfish
11 - Fontinalis Rising
12 - Ivan
13 - Coyote Luke
14 - Passin Thru
15 - Ben Fishing

So - a 1 in 15 chance to win a package with a retail value of around $100 - not bad odds.

There was only one thing left to do:

The soon-to-be World Famous cat pushed the key to generate the Random Number.

NUMBER 3 - Nontypical Pursuit.

Send me your address.

The cat has spoken.

Time for a FLY FISHING giveaway on Flowing Waters

2011-03-13T18:09:00.004-05:00

All right- I know Spring has to emerge sooner or later, so, I was doing what I normally do when I can't go fishing - messing around with my fishing gear. Those of you who actually read this blog will recollect that, on occasions, I have alluded to the fact that i have an inordinate amount of fishing gear. My wife tells me that I am a shoe-in for a future episode of "Hoarders". I can see it now - "OK, just step over that box of reels. Don't put your hand there - those lures have exposed hooks. Don't open that door - the closet is full of guns" But - I digress. I believe the comment from my wife this afternoon was "You couldn't use all this if you fly fished every day for the rest of your life" She may be right - I don't think she is, but she may be. The problem, of course, is that I fly fish for trout about 1-3 days per year. At that rate, I figure I'm good until about 2167.

Now, in my mind, there is nothing worse than good stuff that goes un-used. To remedy that situation - at least a little bit - I am having a Spring Fly Fishing Giveaway.

So, Joe - how's this going to work? Pretty simple, actually.

1) If you don't already FOLLOW this blog - sign up as a Follower
2) Post a comment telling me the size of your biggest trout caught on a fly, and what you caught it on. If you've NEVER caught a trout on a fly, but want to - state just that in the post!
3) Finally - what exactly can you, the blog follower, win? Pictures are below. Items in the Giveaway are:

SA Supra WF 5 F fly line
A Fog Eliminator anti-fogging cloth for glasses / sunglasses
SA Fly Floatant
3 leaders
A Catch & Release sticker
A flybox with 42 flies. Flies are as shown, and contain the standard stuff I use - Muddlers, Adams, Caddis, Pheasant Tails, Princes,...

It's that simple. Could it be any easier to enter to win this pack??

I will use the famous RNG (Random Number Generator) on Sunday, March 18 at 7 PM Central time and announce the winner that night.

Now, at first glance, this may appear to be a cheap, sordid attempt to lure people into reading and actually following this pathetic blog. It is. Why else would anyone ever follow this nonsense if they didn't feel like they had a chance to win some swag? Almost seems like bribery. Actually, it's JUST LIKE bribery!!

Here's my cat.

Shamed into writing a post

2011-03-06T22:21:00.002-06:00

Every year in February and March, my blogging slows to a crawl. Unless I get a chance to ice fish - like this year - I just don't have anything interesting to write about. Even so, I know that the demise of many blogs is a lack of posting frequency. (As a matter of fact, I just noticed this evening that I LOST a Follower! The nerve!!) So, in the back of my mind, I've been planning a post.

And then, it happened. From the most unlikely of sources. A virtual beat-down from a well respected and admired blogger. She ripped at the very soul of this pathetic little blog, stating unequivocally that I was not worthy of following, or even reading, due to my lack of writing. I was devastated. When you get called out by a legend, and you have no comeback, there is nothing to do but curl up quietly in a ball, close your eyes, and hope that, when you wake up, it will all be just a dream. No such luck. Kari Murray - the famed Huntress Extraordinaire author of I Don't Wear Pink Camo in the Woods - had cut my blogging ego to the core with her vicious attack.

[OK,OK - the actual comment was: "Oh and Mr. Wolfy. I notice you don't post on your blog... get with it you!!!!" But I know that she's just too nice to say what she really means. Oh, wait a minute - she ALWAYS says what she really means. Oh well)

Looking back over the past few years, I usually get out for panfish in March, so I will have something to write about. Actually, I have PLENTY to write about. I'm taking my Dad and Son to Alabama in 3 weeks fishing for bass. This is the same place my son gt an 8#, 4 oz. bass 2 years ago, and last year I got a couple over 10. The ponds keep getting better, and I can't wait to see what happens this year. My Dad has only ever caught 1 bass over 3 pounds - he got a 6# in Okeechobee about 6 years ago. Nice fish, but pretty uneventful. He was fishing a spinnerbait when the fish hit, and it dove into the weeds. He pulled in about 40 pounds of weeds, we peeled them away, and - voila - a nice bass. So - I will be doing some trip planning posts and an extensive recap in the next month.

In the meantime - THANK YOU, Kari Murray, for shaming me into posting on my blog!

Since I don't have any fish pictures to show, I'll do the next best thing. Here is our cat:

Still batting 1.000 on meeting great bloggers

2011-02-14T21:35:00.005-06:00

I did a couple of really good things this past Sunday - I broke a 2 year drought by going ice fishing, And the person who invited me was a fellow blogger who I've come to "know" through the OBN. Ed Schmitt from Four Season Angler asked me to meet him at a local subdivision pond for a few hours of fishing. When I say "local", I mean it- this particular pond that Ed has access to is about 1 mile from my house! And - the temperature was over freezing. I had forgotten what warm weather felt like. (Warm being a relative term)

I have always enjoyed ice fishing, but really have little experience. When I lived in PA, ice was a rare occurrence. I moved to Syracuse and spent 10 years there. Perfect ice conditions for 4 months of the year. Except - I rarely got out. Winters were among the busiest times in those years, and I just didn't have time. Now, in IL for 10+ years, I'm back in an occasionally good ice area - like this year. the reason for all this background? I ALWAYS have enough gear and equipment to outfit myself and anyone who wants to join in any fish related endeavor. Not this time, though. I showed up with a 5 gallon bucket, some waxies and spikes, a little box of jigs, 2 small ice rod/reel combos, and a 20 year old Schoolie plastic rod/reel. That Schoolie is my favorite panfish rod for the ice. Go figure.

Ed, on the other hand, was set. Frabil sled, electronics, underwater camera, tip-ups - the man knows how to go ice fishing.

Pond bass with my cheapy Schoolie rod - I love it!

I remember now why I like ice fishing - it's a great social sport. There is always some back and forth banter, even when chasing flags. The fishing was OK - flags going off periodically, with a few bass coming up. We jigged up a bunch of panfish, and I got a couple of bass jigging, too. I finally got a perch, giving me the coveted "Pond Trifecta" (I made that up). All in all, a really nice way to spend a morning - meeting new people, and catching some fish.

We already have a follow-up trip or two planned. Should be really interesting.

Finally, a word about Ed's Four Season Angler's Writer's Network. Ed spearheads the group that consists of Ken Gortowski's Waterdog Journal, Cory Yarmouth's Legend Outdoors with Cory Yarmouth, Travis Brasfield's Simply Fishing , and Rob Piorkowski's Outcasting. there is no shortage of good reads from these Illinois writers. Check them out when you get a chance.

Bass Contest Winner

2011-02-06T19:24:00.003-06:00

Halftime of the Super Bowl was 7 PM CST, so I logged on went to the RNG. There were 25 comments, so everyone had a4% chance to win the package of Bass Gear.

I figured I ought to take a picture of the screen when the RNG drew the Lucky number, so there would be no disputing the results.

This time, the lucky winner was the LAST comment entered!! Congrats go out to Functional Fishaholic. Shoot me an email with your address and I'll get your stuff out to you.

Thanks to all who entered and especially my new followers.

Joe

My First Gear review - Glacier Glove Alaskan Pro gloves

2011-02-02T19:52:00.003-06:00

A month or so ago, the OBN featured Glacier Gloves Alaskan Pro model gloves. They sent the gloves to me to distribute to our winners. They sent an extra pair, which I've had in my garage for a month. I planned to give these away to a deserving blogger to do a Gear Review on. But - the best laid plans sometimes go awry.

Enter the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011

Our forecast for last night was ominous - 20" of snow, 40 mph winds, blizzard conditions. It was pretty bad when we went to sleep. And I knew the bad stuff would be waiting for me in the morning. It was.

The fence is 4' high

The snow was drifted over my fence in the back yard - it is a 4' fence. The driveway was buried. I got my snowmobile suit on, a wool hat, and went out to fire up the snow blower, when I saw them - the un-used gloves. Time to put them to the test.

The snow IN the driveway was 6" - 2-1/2' deep. The really bad stuff - the piles they plow into the end of the driveway - was a solid 3' of wet, heavy snow and ice. Due to a timely conversation with a newly divorced couple who used to live down the street from us, I was able to procure a big, powerful 2-stage snow blower at a really good price about a year ago. The good part - it works great in even the worst snows. The bad part (well - not really that bad)- it is the biggest snow blower in the neighborhood, and there is an unspoken understanding that you will help everyone else with their driveways. Which, of course, I did.

In total, I spent 3-1/2 hours outside blowing snow. No matter how hard you try, some of the snow plume ends up blowing back in your face/ on your hands/ covering you in a fine layer of ice and snow. You get wet. And cold. there is no getting around it. My wool hat kept my head warm. The snowmobile suit kept me warm and relatively dry. But the gloves - THE GLOVES - things of beauty!! My hands were completely dry and toasty warm. The outsides were covered in a layer of ice, but my hands were warm and dry. The whole day. I LOVE these gloves.

Now, I realize that this is not what the gloves were designed for. I wasn't hunting or fishing. But I promise you - I would not have been hunting or fishing in these conditions. This was worse than anything I would ever put these gloves through in the field.

I love em, and I'm keeping them!

Are you a Bass Fisherman? Flowing Waters Giveaway!!

2011-02-01T19:40:00.007-06:00

A few posts back, I made note of the fact that I had passed the 100 Followers threshold. It still amazes me that more than 100 people would find this blog interesting enough to follow, but I digress. I also mentioned that I would probably hold some kind of a Giveaway. Well - the time is now!

I'm sitting at my computer, listening to the howling winds outside as the Chicago area braces for what is forecast to be one of the worst snowstorm / blizzards ever. Up to 20" of snow is forecast tonight into tomorrow, with winds up to 50 mph. It is blowing like hell right now, and I'm glad I'm inside. With a nice glass of red wine. And a little buzz.

So, Joe - tell us about this GIVEAWAY!!

Here's the deal - this one is for you if you are a BASS FISHERMAN. The product shown below is what is being offered to a lucky reader. The rules to enter are incredibly simple and easy:

1) If you don't already FOLLOW this blog - sign up as a Follower
2) Post a comment telling me the size of your biggest bass, and what you caught it on. If you've NEVER caught a bass, but want to - state just that in the post!

It's that simple. Could it be any easier to enter to win this lure pack??

I will use the famous RNG (Random Number Generator) on Sunday, February 6 at 7 PM Central time and announce the winner that night.

And, for you Fly Fishermen out there - don't fret - there is a GIVEAWAY coming for you too!!

(Package includes: Strike King Pro Buzz buzzbait, Strike King Bitsy titanium Elite Spinnerbait, Blue Fox Vibrax #3 spinner, Harrison - Hogue Big Eyed Pro Frog, Rapala Rattling Suspending Shad Rap #5, Rapala CD 7, Rapala Deep Running Minnow Rap 9, Lucky Craft Staysee 90 SP, Eagle Claw Trokar EWG hooks - 4/0, Yamamoto SW 5" Swimbait, Yamamoto 4" Senko, Kalin 5" Lunker Grub, Strike King 4.5" Bleeding Tubes)

GOOD LUCK

The Nerve Center of my blogging universe

2011-01-27T21:40:00.003-06:00

Over at the OBN, a photo prompt went out to have the bloggers post some pictures of their computer areas. Do you have a great, inspirational view? A pigpen of a work area? What does that area look like where you unleash your creative talents??

I decided to take them up on the challenge. (Actually, my last couple of posts have been in response to OBN suggestions. Thank God Rebecca throws out these ideas, or my blog would be a barren wasteland over the winter)

This is my work station. What is the first thing you notice? I STILL use a desktop! Everyone else has pictures of them with their laptops. Not me. Even when I do something progressive - like use computer - I use the old-fashioned style. I have a laptop, but don't use it unless I have no other choice. I guess I'm just a computer curmudgeon.

Our computer "lives" in an armoire in the living room. This way I can be online blogging or doing OBN stuff, while my wife can be relaxing and watching TV, and we're both in the same room. It works well for us.

I have no view to speak of - just the neighbors house on the other side of the fence. My connection to the outdoors lies in the print shown below. It hangs above the computer . It is titled "Minipi Brookies - Labrador, Canada" and is done by a friend of mine, Harry Robertson. The print is signed, re-marqued, and is a limited edition of "Friends of the Artist". It shows 3 heavy brookies, with one rising to a swimming lemming. In my mind, I've have spent many hours in Labrador casting to those trout, even landing a few. It's one of my favorite prints.

"Minipi Brookies - Labrador, Canada" by Harry Robertson

Now you know where these wonderful words of wisdom are born. Pretty pedestrian, actually, but I like to call it HOME.

My Favorite Place(s)

2011-01-11T14:29:00.006-06:00

I'm looking out the window at more fresh snow, and, quite honestly, I'm sick of it. So, right here, right now, is definitely NOT one of my favorite places. Which brings us to the beauty of a photo prompt from the OBN which asks us to post a photo of our favorite place. Since I can't narrow it down to one, a few photos will have to do.

This photo quality is poor at best, but I don't care. It is one of my favorite trout streams, a beautiful stream in Utah full of brookies, cuts, cut-bows. I caught my first grayling here as well.

I love high mountain meadow streams full of trout. This Colorado stream, at around 10,200', qualifies.

Fly fishing for arctic sheefish - Inconnu - in the Yukon.

And, finally, a little something to chase away the winter blahs.

Happy New Year, a Milestone, and a couple of resolutions

2011-01-01T22:22:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year to all who manage to stumble over to this blog. I appreciate your company over here.

Like most of the people in the blog-sphere, I look back on the previous year when the New Year rolls around. This has been a whirlwind, different kind of year for me. I recently passed a personal milestone - 100 Followers to this blog. That stuns me. When I started this little writing project, I had no set goal or idea about people following me. Having 100 people sign up to follow Flowing Waters is truly humbling, and greatly appreciated. Especially when you consider that, for the past 3 months, I have failed miserably at keeping this little blog interesting, or even up to date. For that reason, I will try to make amends by holding some sort of a giveaway to mark the 100 Follower milestone. Watch for upcoming details.

Sure, I've had a lot less time to dedicate to the blog since the OBN started. And - I haven't really gotten a chance to do any fishing in that time, either. But if I'm going to maintain a blog, then I need to do it right. What a perfect segue into a Resolution!!

My first resolution is to fish more often. This will, by definition, lead to more fishing posts!! 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty good fishing year, at least as it looks at the moment. I will be doing a big pike / laker / grayling trip to Misaw Lake in Northern Saskatchewan in June, spring largemouth bass in Alabama, and smallmouth in Quebec in September. there is a good possibility that I'll get out to the Rockies a time or 2 for some fly fishing. So - good things are on the horizon.

Next, I want to continue meeting some of my blog buddies. Last year was a great one for me in that regard - I met Kari - I Don't Wear Pink Camo in the Woods - , Mike -Troutrageous - and Rebecca - the Outdooress. It would be pretty tough to top the quality of those three folks, but I think most of the bloggers I follow and interact with would be equally terrific.

I hope the OBN continues on its meteoric success path, even though I have no idea where I'll find the time to dedicate to it. Oh well - less sleep, I guess. If Owl Jones can live on no sleep, I can at least try it!

Finally, my interest in Tenkara fly fishing has been piqued this past year, and I might need to give it a try. Just what I need - something else to take up my time.

Most of all, I hope to continue reading and admiring the blogs and blog buddies I've found. All of you make me better through your writings and friendship.

Thanks

Wolfy

Christmas Greretings

2010-12-24T13:23:00.002-06:00

Thank God for the Holidays - without them I'd never have anything to post!

Actually, I have a pretty full slate of fishing planned for the coming year, so hang in there through these dry months. It will be worthwhile come spring (I hope)

A Merry Christmas to all my cyber-family friends and followers!

Joe

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year . . .

2010-12-04T16:55:00.002-06:00

Our first snow of the year

And why is it the most Wonderful Time of the Year???

My son shoveled the driveway today - not me!!!

Thank God for stocked trout

2010-11-23T15:31:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Nov. 22, the temp in suburban Chicagoland topped out at 70 degrees. It poured in the morning on the way to work. But , rather than be dismayed by the crappy weather, my thoughts were "Hmm - this is a lot of 50-60 degree rain hitting the cold ponds. Ought to make the fish a little more active.

Luckily, around noon, the skies cleared up a little, and I made it out to the ponds for one last open water fling. Yes - the same ponds that kicked by butt the last 2 times I was on them. Driving out there, I felt like Charlie Brown, running up to kick the football.

I started out with - and kept on the whole time - a sz. 0 Mepps Aglia with a squirrel tail. The first 15-20 minutes were uneventful - no hits, no sightings. I was fishing the upper few feet in the water column over the deeper (10' - 15') parts of the pond. These areas have been good to me in the past.

First trout of the day

I moved around, and finally got a viscous strike in about 15" of water by the spillway. When the trout came in, it was being followed by another one. Hmmm. I landed the trout, took a picture on my phone (a first for me) and kept casting. then I decided to try another shallow area I had ignored earlier.

Well - the shallows were the key. I landed 3 trout, missed 3 others - including one BIG fish - and saw a few others. All were shallow, and related to wood / brush in the water. It was actually a springtime bass pattern. I have no idea why they were so shallow. Food? Warmth? No idea.

Another one comes in

This will probably be my last Illinois open water fishing of the year. And I really didn't want to end up the year with 3 skunks in row. I'm trying to get out to the Delta in CA or maybe FLA for a day, but we'll have to see how the cards fall.

Finally - please excuse the photo quality. It's a new phone that I am struggling to learn to use. I can barely make a call, let alone take pictures with it.

Finally - a Happy Thanksgiving to all. Enjoy your turkey day in whatever you manner you wish to celebrate.

A much needed, very overdue makeover to Flowing Waters

2010-11-22T16:20:00.004-06:00

The look on my blog has been unchanged for the past 26 months. To be honest, I never really cared about the look. The blog was simply something I liked to do. But now that I've been exposed to a myriad of blog looks through the Outdoor Blogger Network, I realize how anemic mine really was. So, I decided to do a face lift. Nothing drastic - just the equivalent of a nose job and a tummy tuck. So far , I think it's OK. PLEASE let me know your thoughts, particularly if you think it sucks.

The other component to the makeover was a much needed re-creation of my Blog List. I broke down my one previous list into 4 lists - one for Fishing Blogs, one for Fly Fishing Blogs, one for General Outdoor Blogs, and one for Photo and Art Blogs. There are a lot more blogs listed than there used to be, and there are many more noteworthy ones who are not found here. Yet.

I discovered a new pattern today

2010-11-10T20:10:00.001-06:00

My lunchtime fishing actually happened today. Jesse and I went to the pond for lunch and got in 40 minutes of fishing. The pond was recently stocked with trout, and has the usual assortment of 'gills, crappie, bass, walleye in it. The water was pretty clear and the sun cast its warming rays all over the surface.

And I discovered a new pattern. That pattern:

NEVER post that I'm going fishing with any expectation of success again!!! Every time I do that, I strike out miserably

I've done that twice, and twice I would have had better luck if I had stayed in our company parking lot. This time we could actually SEE trout - they just ignored, or ran from, our lures.

I HATE to end the year on such a lousy note. I may have to try it again tomorrow.

But I'll have NO expectations

Must... Go... Fishing!!!

2010-11-10T09:04:00.002-06:00

Temperature is supposed to top out at 70 today, same tomorrow. Might rain tomorrow, though. Then - colder, wintry weather returns, and these unseasonably warm days will be distant memories.

I MUST get out to the ponds today and /or tomorrow over lunch. It will almost certainly be my last hurrah in Illinois for 2010.

(Interestingly enough, I posted a similar piece last November - November 13, to be exact. The weather had warmed up to 55, and I hit the same ponds over lunch. Got a few trout, 2 'gills, and a crappie. I at least know where to start now!)

Stay tuned for the "results" post - I hope they're better than the last post I did, where I built up my expectations, and got beat up by the fish.

Time for my Bucket List

2010-10-28T12:36:00.004-05:00

Photo by Adrian Jones
http://ian.umces.edu/imagelibrary/displayimage-1066.html

(For this post, I'm following the suggestion of the OBN prompt regarding Bucket Lists. Since I've spent all my free time doing OBN stuff anyway - and, consequently, not fishing - I have nothing else to write about!!)

Kari Murray, the author of I Don't Wear Pink Camo in the Woods, wrote up her Bucket List last winter and published it on her blog. I've been meaning to do the same, but it just never rose high enough in the mental "to-do" list. I would imagine that's what happens to a lot of Bucket Lists. But, I like the idea of publicly putting out the list of goals, and knocking them off as they occur. As an added plus, by writing them down and making them public, there amay be people out there who can help you facilitate those goals. Of course, this Bucket List will involve only outdoor-related stuff.

Let me begin by pointing out that I HAVE NOT been short-changed in any way, shape, or form with regard to opportunites to pursue my outdoor passions. Traveling for business has afforded me many opportunities others only dream about, and I don't lose sight of the fortunate hand I've been dealt. I also don't apologize for it. It simply is what it is. But I still have a mental list of things I want to do before my time is up. So, without further ado - my Bucket List

1) Visit / fish Alaska

2) See the Northern Lights

3) Catch a Golden Trout on a fly in a stream in California.

4) Catch a pike over 50"

5) Fish the Amazon for peacock bass.

5a) Catch Golden Dorado on the same trip

6) Do a productive fishing trip with my Dad and son.
(We've had one unproductive one so far)

7) Catch a fish in all 50 states - see the list at the right of this post.

8) Catch a good (> 40") musky, on purpose

9) Trek in Nepal

10) Flyfish for brook trout in Labrador

11) Fish the Seychelles

Some of these are never going to happen (unless the Lottery gods smile upon me), some are quite do-able. Of course , I'll take all the help I can get to accomplish these goals. So, if you have a condo in the Seychelles that you're not using for a few weeks and you need someone to look after it - let me know!!

A New Era, and more time in front of the screen of a computer

2010-10-18T09:05:00.011-05:00

Today - Monday, October 18, 2010 - marks the official beginning of a project that I hope to someday be able to look back on and say "Geez - remember way back when the OBN started?"

I'm sure some of you have noticed the Outdoor Blogger Network buttons / logos that have been appearing on the sidebars of some blogs over the past few days. Well, today is the official launch of that website. What is the OBN? Why do we need another website? Who cares? Read on and I'll explain in my own simple way.

A few months back, Rebeca Garlock - The Outdooress - and I met to fish some of the fine waters she writes about. That was it - we were going fishing. If you read these pages (and I'm assuming you do, because you're reading this!) you know that we "clicked" from the moment we met. No weird awkward silences, nothing - just like we were old friends fishing together. And, as we found out throughout those couple of days, we shared a few visions of what we would like to see our respective blogs become, and, even more so, where we thought the whole Outdoor Blogging community was heading. Or where we thought it SHOULD BE heading. These conversations were much the same as many we've all had - "What would you do if you won a million dollars?", "What do you want to be when you grow up?", ... [BTW - I have NO intentions of ever growing up!] Just typical, pie-in-the-sky kind of conversations. Except that this one didn't just fade away, into the background, into the graveyard of "What if...". We kept talking about this. And we started laying the groundwork to actually DO the site.

Our vision, in a nutshell, was to develop a place for readers of Outdoor blogs to find the best material on the web, and for Outdoor bloggers to have a centralized "meeting place" - a cyber "neighborhood bar / cafe", if you will. We wanted the Outdoor Blogging community to have something to be a part of, and to be able to amass a common voice in the media if need be. We feel that if we can have a somewhat consolidated voice, that we can become a viable part of the media (strength in numbers, if you will) where, now, we are individual voices in the forest of the industry. Finally, we wanted to create a centralized point of contact for manufacturers of outdoor related products, so they can more easily facilitate product placement for reviews, and have an archived listing of past reviews.

It is a pretty ambitious plan and goal.

And, the one thing we don't ever want to lose sight of (because, if we do, it will be the death of the site) is that the OBN HAS TO be a place people want to log into, and want to be a part of. It has to be fun.

Because, in the end, if we're not having fun doing this stuff - why are we doing it?

If you're a fellow blogger, and want to become part of the Outdoor Blogger Network, click on the OBN button alongside this post and become a part of the network!

Finally, if you've already signed up for the OBN, make sure you return to the site to see how YOU can win some cool stuff in our Inaugural Giveaway!!

Some days you're the pigeon - today, I was the statue

2010-10-07T22:22:00.005-05:00

Today was a beautiful Fall day. Actually, it was a little warm - almost 80 - but very little wind, and not a cloud in the sky. My plan actually came to fruition, and I carved out 2 whole hours to fish , from 1:15 to 3:15.

A beautiful Fall day on the pond

My mind raced - stick with the original plan of crankbait / swim jig? Spinnerbaits always do pretty well here - maybe I'll go with one of those. Based on previous Fall excursions here, I figured I'd fish faster rather than at a slow, deliberate pace. I lowered the trolling motor and started on my long awaited 2 hours of solitude and fish un-hooking.

Well, at least the solitude part held true.

A turtle sunning itself

Total tally - 3 hits, no fish hooked and, obviously, no fish landed. A total skunk. And I just don't get it. The first time around the pond - it takes about an hour - yielded nothing for the sunny half. I missed one hit on a 1/24 oz. jig w/ a white grub on the shaded half. I slowed down on the second go-around, and got 1 hit on a 5" Senko. Whiffed on the hit. Finished up by getting a half-assed hit on a Cubby just before I left. Only 2 days before, Jesse - a co-worker at work, and a really good fisherman - put his boat in the pond and fished for an hour. He got about 9-10 bass up to a pound and a half. And a nice walleye. He planned to come out this evening to use the boat for an hour or so. I really didn't feel like calling him with such a pathetic report, but I did. I knew the beating I'd take at work for getting blanked, while he would put a bunch of fish in the boat, would be relentless. He was stunned that it was that bad for me. [I texted him at dark and asked how he did - 2 hits, 1 - 5" bass! It stayed bad] At least I can show my face tomorrow at work.

I just don't know why there was such a marked difference over the past 2 days. Weather conditions have been stable and warming - usually good in the Fall. I threw: crankbaits, spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits, Senkos, grubs - both 3" and 2", Cubbies, buzzbait, swim jig, Sammy. Nothing.

Thank God I wasn't being relied upon to provide for the family, or we would have eating Stone Soup.

"Pre" fishing, sort of

2010-10-06T22:38:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to get a chance to get out on the ponds for a few hours and sample a little Fall largemouth bass fishing. (Barring some unforeseen work crisis)

My "pre-fishing" consists of thinking about what I will use for the bass tomorrow. I figured I would share those thoughts, then post tomorrow nite with photos of my successful, or unsuccessful, outing.

The day was chosen because it was the only one I had that I could possibly get out, and I think it will end up being a good one. We had frost over the weekend, with highs in the 50's. It is now gradually getting warmer, and will be sunny tomorrow. I've had fairly good success on days like this in the past.

My plan going in is to do what I've done with some success in the past - square-lipped crankbaits on the main body of water, and spinnerbaits and swim jigs along the wood. The pond doesn't have much weed to speak of. I'll take one baitcast and one spinning outfit along.

I expect it to be pretty good, and will be a little disappointed if I don't bring a few bass over 2 pounds to hand. But - we'll see.

I'll let you know tomorrow what actually happens!

Three for three - batting 1.000!!

2010-09-30T13:45:00.007-05:00

As I'm sure many of you already know, I met up with Kari Murray last week. I got late notice that I had to drive from Chicago to St. Paul to hand carry a sample for a meeting. I didn't feel like staying in the Twin Cities metro area on Thursday nite, so I got out my maps (Actually, I pulled up Map Quest). I realized that Kari lived about an hour outside the cities, so I emailed her.

Many of you know, or have surmised, that I travel extensively for work. That's how I get to fit a day in here, and a day in there, all across the country. It's part of the reason that the blog-sphere family has meant so much to me - I know I'll actually get to meet some of these people who share like interests. Granted, I'm usually tied up in the evenings with customers and/or reps, but every once in a while, a day or two free up, and I know I can find a fellow blogger somewhere to share a drink or a bite with. Or, ideally, wet a line.

Since I follow Kari's blog, I knew about her Bucket List. In the e-mail, I asked her if she was available to knock off 2 Bucket List items - the Leinie tour, and meet a blogger. She was available, and we met at the brewery.

It's funny how you have a pre-determined idea about someone before you meet face-to-face. Kari is exactly as I thought she would be, which means she represents herself on her blog very well. She's smart, witty, and brutally honest. I really enjoyed our time spent talking about life, hunting , fishing, families, blogging, ... I did get soaked walking between buildings on the Leinie tour. My fault - didn't bring an umbrella. Unlike Kari, I like at least one of the Leinie beers - the Creamy Dark. By pure coincidence, it is the beer that Casey at Fungal Threads (see My Blog List at the side of the post) did a review on!

Kari at the Leinie Brewery. One stricken from the Bucket List!

The Leinie brewery tour was pretty cool. I don't think I've ever been on a brewery tour before - I have been to the Jack Daniels distillery, but not to a brewery. Our tour guide was great, and it was Kari, me, and one other guy, so you didn't miss anything. And, even though they were "small sipping glasses", the 3 free samples were nice.

Like I mentioned above, dinner with Kari was really just a continuation of talking about everything! It was one of those times when you lose track of time and the conversation just keeps going on and on. I can promise you that, if I don't see Kari again for 4 years, we would pick up just where we left off, and wouldn't miss a beat.

Like the rest of the blog world, I'll continue to follow Kari's adventures (and occasional mis-adventures) on "I Don't Wear Pink Camo". She has - rightfully so - developed a huge following on her blog and will undoubtedly continue to do so. And, if you're one of the lucky few who get to meet her - you'll be better off for having done so.

Number 2 off the List!

So, what is the title of this blog referring to? I've always said that I wanted to meet some of the people I've come to "know" via their blogs. In 2010, I've met with 3 of them, and all the meetings have been better than could be expected. I've met with Kari, mike from Troutrageous, and met (and fished) with Rebecca - the Outdooress. So - I'm 3 for 3, batting 1.000! I look forward to continuing this trend - it makes the time on the road a lot more bearable when you're talking to new friends about fishing!

A quick walk around my ponds

2010-09-26T23:06:00.004-05:00

On Saturday, we finished up the list of things to do around 3 pm. the day was markedly cooler than any other recent days - high was only 61. Heavy overcast clouds, and a persistent slight drizzle. A perfect day to stay inside. But...

I had not been on the ponds across the street since I fished during the high water period of August 8th. In fact, I haven't even picked up anything but a fly rod since then. So I figured I'd walk across the street and see what I could find.

My lure selection consisted of: 2 - 1/4 oz. swim jigs, a bag of trailers, 1 buzzbait, 2 small (3/16 oz.) spinnerbaits, 1 2/0 worm hook, and a bag of Strike King Ochos. I started out in the pond I fished during the high water . Nothing. I expected to get some action on the swim jig, or the worm, but struck out on both. I decided to try to lower pond.

Now, this may seem absurd, since I fish all over the country, but in the 7 years I have lived in this house, I have never fished this pond further than 1/4 of the way down the north bank, and not at all on the south side. I don't really know why, but I haven't. I worked this pond down along the north bank, still getting no response to my worm. tried the buzzbait - nada. Finally put on the spinnerbait. Got a short hit casting tight to the bank and parallel to shore. there was not much of a drop off, and the weeds were scattered, so the spinnerbait seemed like a logical search bait. Over the next 45 minutes, I got 6 hits and landed 4 more small largemouth. Nothing over 12". I guess you can't always catch big fish. It seemed like it should be a good day, with the lack of clouds and the drizzle, but it was sporadic at best. i saw what appeared to be a few swirls from (possibly) big bass chasing something, but they showed no interest in anything I had.

It seems like my Fall bass fishing goes like that most of the time. I've had some stellar big fish days, but a lot of skunks, too. Do you find any consistency in Fall bass fishing, particularly in ponds??

videos from RMNP

2010-09-25T07:30:00.002-05:00

I'll give it another try with the videos. I had to break down and open up a YouTube Channel. You know what that means - now I'll have to take more video. And that will take more time - time that I don't have. UGH - sometimes I thik I'm my own worst enemy!

Feel free to throw out some constructive criticism, but remember - these are my first attempts at videos!

Why I love Rocky Mountain National Park

2010-09-19T19:40:00.013-05:00

Well - what's NOT to love? I know this post may seem odd coming from a flatlander, but it's my blog, so here it is ..

As I mentioned in the previous post, RMNP is visited by nearly 3 million people annually. the obvious beauty of the place is apparent to everyone who enters the Park, or drives through the area. The mountains here are steep and rugged, and offer great photo ops. There is an abundance of wildlife in the protected park, so most people will see some of the critters that are present. the signature species for the park is certainly the elk, but on the west side, moose are headliners as well.

With all these people enjoying the Park, it can seem crowded at times, especially on weekends and during the elk bugling season (mid- September to mid-October). Bu, with a little research and effort, you can find unlimited opportunities to enjoy this world class park in solitude, and enjoy it on whatever level you prefer.

upper Colorado River

There are 359 miles of hiking trails in the park, ranging from extreme mountaineering ascents on rugged peaks, to wheelchair accessible trails. Whatever your personal cup of tea, it is offered in RMNP. The 3 million visitors is a documented number. My estimate is that every person entering the park takes an average of 20 photos. (Don't ask me how I came up with that - its just a guess) That means there are 60 million photos taken every year of the park's beauty! The point is, my representations are simply one person's point-and-shoot synopsis of a beautiful area. In order to take full advantage of the park's beauty (and to avoid the bulk of the crowds), concentrate your efforts in the low light times. I really like to be in the Park before daybreak, giving me the chance to witness some spectacular light settings and sunrises i the mountains. (Real photographers understand the nuances of the soft lighting - I just think its neat!) It is also the best time to observe the park's wildlife. I've seen coyotes, bear, lots of elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep in the low light periods.

Much like in the fishing circles, people gravitate to the Big Game animals (just like they do to the Big Fish) But the plentiful smaller creatures offer a lot on their own. Abundant squirrels and Stellar's Jays are common in the picnic areas. Yellow bellied marmots are found throughout the Park, while the little pica's inhabit the sub-alpine ecosystem at the highest elevations. Don't overlook the little guys when you are in the park. Some of the Park's premier residents.

You will need to click on thephotos to see the animals better. The elk were in low light, and the moose were a LONG way away!

2 young bull moose on the west side

A couple of bull elk sparring by Sheep Lakes. Low light makes it hard to photograph with a simple camera, but it is the best time to see the animals.

Merriam turkey and young ones. I had never seen turkeys in RMNP before.

Some of the smaller residents

Stellar Jay

Woodpecker

You will notice that a bunch of the pine treees appear dead. They are dead. The reason - Mountain Pine Beetles. These grain-of-rice sized insects destroy pine trees throughout the Rockies. They have been decimating the pines in the Park in recent years. Since they are a naturally occuring species, the Park is letting them do what they do naturally. The only thing the park does is make sure the visitors are safe by cutting down roadside dead trees, and dead trees in the campgrounds, to eliminate the possibility of a dead tree falling on a camper or visitor. I asked about the possibility of a massive forest fire. The answer was that there was certainly a greater probability of such an event due to the amount of dead timber. But, after about 3 years, the pitch in the pines is gone, so the burn would be just the brittle timber, and not the flammable pitch, which only makes things worse. One factor that reduces the infestation is a sustained sub-freezing temperature period in September. Whether it is global warming, or just a recent trend, those extended sub-freezing temps have been non-existant, so the beetles have longer to maul the trees.

Since my travels always revolve around some type of fishing, I'll touch on that for a bit as well. There is surprisingly little information about the fishing in the Federal Documents online regarding the park. The most popular waters include the Fall River, upper Big Thompson River in Moraine Park, and the upper reaches of the Colorado River. But there are many, many other creeks (and a lot of lakes)that have fishable populations in them. But, as mentioned in the previous post, the fish are, on average, small. But they are beautiful! If you love small stream trout fishing, this park can be close to paradise.

A greenback cutthroat caught in RMNP on a previous trip

The story of the Greenback Cutthroat trout has been stated numerous times, but for anyone not familiar with it, I'll give it my brief synopsis. In the1930's, greenback cutthroat were declared extinct. In 1957, a population was discovered in the upper drainage of the big Thompson river. In 1965 and 1970, other populations were discovered, and under the 1873 Endangered Species Act, the greenback cutthroat trout was declared endangered. Restocking programs have helped expand the range back to 55 of their historical range. However, recent DNA findings have shown that a number of the fish stocked as supposedly pure strain greenbacks were actually the closely related Colorado River Cutthroat. So the reintroduction is not as widespread as it was once hoped. The restocking was done based on the best available information, and only recently could the DNA evidence show that the fish were not all Greenbacks. Still, RMNP offers anglers opportunities to catch and release both the Greenbacks and the Colorado River sub-species of cuts.

Bugling bull elk

Still some snow patches on the north sides of the peaks

I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to visit this magnificent park, even if only for a part of a day. As you can probably tell, I absolutely love it there!

The following pictures are some that I made by messing with the color saturations on the originals. The aspens below show the original and the doctored photo. I like the color contrast shown by the aspens and just exagerrated it. The bull elk silhouette is a similar process.

The original

Over saturated colors

Elk Silhouette

Flyfishing Colorado's RMNP

2010-09-17T23:07:00.014-05:00

(PLEASE click on these photos - some of them are actually quite nice!)

RMNP and the Colorado River, looking up from Bowen Baker trailhead

For those of who who do not know what RMNP is, it stands for Rocky Mountain National Park. This magnificent park is heavily traveled, hosts millions of tourists each year, and offers lots of opportunities for fly fishermen, especially those willing to walk into areas a bit removed from the road.

Looking back on the east side of the Park, from Old Fall River Rd

Before I go any further, I want to bring up a sometimes sensitive subject, particularly, it seems, within the fly fishing world. Fly fishermen in general tend to be very closed-mouthed about the places they fish. Some of this is inherent to the sport itself - it tends to be a solo-oriented, introspective sport. Some of the hesitancy stems from experience - people have seen their favorite spots overrun with other fishermen, and the aura, and eventually the fishing quality, are gone. The usual term for identifying a spot in print is "Hotspotting". If I identify a piece of water by its name, it is because I don't consider it susceptible to Hotspotting. Many waters are on this list. If I write about going fly fishing on the Madison River in Montana, who cares? EVERYONE fly fishes on the Madison if they're in SW Montana! Most small streams, however, remain nameless. These streams, however, I will name, and there is a reason for it.

RMNP is visited by 3 million people annually. With all those people, it can pretty crowded in the peak times - summer, and mid-September to mid-October, when the elk are bugling. Wit only one road going from from the east to west side - Trail Ridge Rd - traffic jams are common (especially right now, when they are doing a major road resurfacing project on Trail Ridge.) Still, if you do some homework, and ask questions, you can escape the crowds and feel like you are the only person on earth in this stunningly beautiful place. The real reason I don't feel the park will ever be a destination is because, by and large, the fish are small. There are a few nice fish in these waters, but if you are looking for a trophy trout, this is not going to be on your radar. Unless, like me, you define a trophy as "any wild trout caught in a beautiful place". If that is your definition, I'll meet you there!

I had one day set aside to fly fish these waters. Due to the roadwork being done, I had to decide whether to fish the East side of the park or the west side - I didn't want to sit in traffic all day going back and forth. I decided on the west side. I love to fish the Colorado River in the park. The headwaters are full of trout, are just the right size, and there is just something about fishing a 15' wide stream for wild trout, and knowing that these very same waters are the ones that carved out the Grand Canyon. Pretty humbling. I always catch plenty of brook trout here, and usually a few browns. Colorado River cutthroat trout are native here, but not very common on the Colorado itself in this area. Some of the tributaries have been re-stocked with pure strain Col. River cuts, but I have never caught them.

The upper Colorado river

I parked at the Col. River trailhead, and walked upstream for about a mile along the trail. It is an easy walk, but for a middle aged guy in less than ideal shape (unless your ideal shape is a pear) who lives basically at sea level, the thin air at this elevation (9,040' at the parking area) makes you stop frequently to catch your breath. And drink LOTS of water. I started fishing below Shipler Park. I always plan to walk upstream further, but I just can't stand to be alongside a beautiful trout stream and not be wetting a line. I started with a #16 Royal Trude and soon had my first fish. While I was fighting it, it seemed to not be of the usual coloration. I brought it to hand, and saw that it was a Colorado River cutthroat! This made my whole day. Beautiful coloration on these fish. After a quick photo, back in the water. I proceeded to catch a bunch of brookies, and one more cut. The water was FRIGID on my feet while wet wading - had to be around 50 degrees. If you were in the water for more than about 30 seconds your feet went numb. But on a stream like this, you don't really wade - more like occasional stream crossing and rock hopping. So, I took a lot of pictures and had a great time.

My first Colorado river cutthroat from the upper Colorado! Beautiful colors.

Col. river brookie

It seems that every time I go fishing there is something non-fish related that happens to make the trip memorable. Earlier this year it was the butterflies on the deer carcass in PA. On this day, another butterfly event occurred. I was re-tying, and looked down to see a butterfly on the cork handle of my fly rod. I started snapping pictures, and the butterfly eventually crawled up the handle and onto my thumb! Never had that happen before, but it was pretty cool! You never know when a photo op will present itself.

And, as usual, there is always the story-within-the-story. This time, I stuck a fly hook in my thumb. Buried it completely up to the bend of the hook - way past the barb. "How?", you might ask. It's easy - just follow these instructions: 1) hang up your fly in a willow on the backcast, just below a beautiful pool. 2) Wade over to the willow, grab onto the branch. 3) Slip on a rock in the water and, as you are sliding/falling, feel the previously unmovable fly slide out of the branch and impale deeply into your thumb.

A dual purpose photo - showing the fly I was using - #18 Goddard Caddis - while proving that I stuck the fly in my thumb!

It was DEEP in my thumb, but didn't really hurt. I grabbed ahold of it with a set of pliers and tried to work it out, but to no avail. (THAT did hurt, btw) Decision time - I'm over a mile into the river, fishing alone, with a hook impaled in my casting thumb. My thumb doesn't hurt much at all. What to do??? Easy - cut the fly off the tippet, and keep fishing. Even though I usually use the thumb on my right hand as the primary "power stroke" part of the cast, with a light rod (I was fishing an 8' 3 wt. rod) I sometimes use my index finger instead. So - I retied (not easy to do w/o using your thumb) and kept fishing. I got about 6 more trout before I decided it would be best to go back to the car to rip the damn thing out. I found the trail and started back.

A small Col. River cut

On the walk back, I ran into a really nice couple from Missouri. We chatted the whole way back to the parking area, and they decided they would help me get the hook out. I had decided to try the method I had used before - wrap the bend of the hook with heavy line, press down on the hook shank, and have someone do a quick POP to pull the hook out. We went down to the river so I could numb the finger in the icy water first. On the way down, I lost the heavy mono loop to use in the hook pull. I numbed the finger in the water and was pushing / pulling on the hook when I noticed that the hook point was just under the skin on my thumb, but couldn't push through the callous. Just then, I remembered that I had done something right for a change!

On Wed., I realized that I had forgotten a folding knife. I always like to have one when I'm solo fishing, so I called up one of the reps working with me. They represent Cold Steel, so I got a new folder from him. I had a brand new, razor sharp Cold Steel knife in my pocket! I pushed the hook through as hard as I could and my new friend from MO gently slit the thumb right at the hook point. No pain at all! The hook poked through, I pushed it through a little more, cut off the shank of the hook, and pulled the whole thing through and out. Stuck the thumb back in the water, and I was good to go. A big THANKS to the folks from MO - you never know when you might need someone to slice open your thumb for you!

I still had a few hours left so I moved down to a tiny stream I knew was full of brookies - Onahu Creek. This is a tiny stream, but is absolutely loaded with beautiful little brookies. I fished this stream for about an hour and lost track of how many brook trout I got. I also did 2 things I've never done before - caught a brown trout on Onahu, and took a video of trout. I hope the video works on here. the tiny brown trout really surprised me - I was at least a mile from the junction of the Colorado River, and the stream is TINY. Oh well - I guess they can go anywhere in high water times!

Onahu Ck

Brook trout from Onahu

There are a few trout in this photo

Closeup from above

Spawn colored brookie from Onahu

Onahu brown trout Hope you enjoy the pictures and video (if it works)(IT DIDN'T). I plan to do another post in a couple of days about the Park and its wildlife. On this short trip - 1 day - I saw: a big black bear, 2 bull moose, a bunch of elk, 6 mule deer, a Merriam turkey with 2 young ones, squirrels, birds, ducks. I LOVE this park!

Win a Plano Bow case signed by Michael Waddell!

2010-08-30T20:23:00.002-05:00

I just ran across this on Facebook and thought all you Bow Hunters might be interested. Plano is giving away one of its All Weather Bone Collector Bow Cases, signed by Michael Waddell!

Follow this link to enter http://www.planomolding.com/contests/

Day 2 - Middle Fork of the Boise River

2010-08-23T14:02:00.015-05:00

Day 2 of our adventure shaped up a little differently than the first day. I would be on my own for the first half of the day - Rebecca had some things that needed to be attended to. The plan was for me to drive up the Middle Fork valley, fish wherever I felt like fishing, and meet up with her in mid-afternoon. This was fine by me since, as I've stated before, I usually fly fish alone anyway.

Middle Fork of the Boise

The Middle Fork is a beautiful river that cuts through the steep mountains northeast of Boise. It is not an undiscovered piece of water by any means - when I talked to a biologist in the DNR, he recommended I fish this water as well. It is crystal clear and full of rainbow trout, redbands, some cut-bows, and some bull trout. The 'bows and redbands tend to be small, so I think that puts most of the more serious flyfishermen on the highly touted South Fork of the Boise. That's all right with me - more room for me!

Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I love small waters and the fish they hold. But my version of small trout water and the biologists version of small trout water are 2 very different things! I brought my small water gear for this one - a 2 wt. rod. In retrospect, the water was too big for that outfit, and I would have been better off with a longer 4 wt. But - I got by, and had fun doing so.

The drive in is, umm - interesting. It contains 2 distinct components. First is the seemingly never-ending , winding , shoreline hugging route that parallels the 2 reservoirs you drive past. Then comes the never-ending, washboarded, dusty, long dirt road that parallels the river. Its not a long drive on the odometer, but it feels like it takes forever. It's even more fun coming out at night!

This river is, to me, a classic, beautiful western mountain stream. Fast water, gin clear, beautiful setting. I loved it from the minute I laid eyes on it. I decided to go upstream a few miles before I picked out a piece of water to start fishing. This day I would be wet wading in the refreshingly cool waters.

First spot I fished

I decided to stick to my usual array of small fish, small water bugs. Throughout the day I used: Humpy, Lime Trude, Elk Hair Caddis, Godlike Caddis, Parachute Madame X, and a H&L Variant. THE fly to use here is the Royal Wulff, but I'm stubborn. And, it didn't really seem to matter.

First trout - a tiny, spunky wild rainbow

I know this fish is tiny , but believe me when I say they put a bend in a 2 wt. they ARE spunky. The river was crystal clear, but these 'bows are tough to see in the water.

Clear water.

The hits came frequently, but the fish are both small and quick, so I missed a lot of hits. My next fish felt bigger, and showed the throat markings and spotting pattern of a cutthroat. It also had an underlying rainbow to it. I don't know which type of cuts are in these drainages, but I'm pretty sure this fish is a cut-bow.

Cut-bow

I moved up to a different spot where a couple of trees had fallen across the river. The currents running through the branches made for some great seams and current breaks, and I picked up 7 or 8 small rainbows in this stretch.

Lots of fish below this tree

I met up with the Outdooress and her husband about 3 pm. Since they know the river, I followed them downstream to some areas they like. It continued to produce these beautiful rainbows, and I got to do some more photography. Hope you enjoy the shots.

Beautiful water

the Outdooress and the Fish Cruiser

Rebecca and Banyon

Which fly, which fly???

Got the right one!

Another rainbow coming in

Love these little fish!

The Outdooress and her dog, in their element

We caught lots of fish, missed lots of fish, and ended up spending the last hour of daylight sitting by the river talking. It was another memorable day fly fishing, one that will stay with me forever.

So, you might wonder how I could enjoy a day catching little rainbows as much as I enjoy a day catching big browns. I don't know why, but I TRULY do enjoy them equally. I'm in awe of big fish, regardless of the species. But I love wild fish in small streams, too. And a foot-long bow or cut on the 2 wt. felt just as good as the 20" browns on a 5 wt. from the day before. I guess it's actually a blessing - I'm VERY easily amused!

The only thing left to do is make return plans to this great area of the world. And I might do that sooner rather than later. The Fall fishery on River X might just be something I HAVE TO experience! I'll leave you with a picture of me and my new found Idaho friend, Rebecca the Outdooress.

Western trout adventure with The Outdooress, Day 1

2010-08-22T00:47:00.012-05:00

I can't stand it anymore - i have to write this post. It will be the first of either 2 or 3 - not sure yet exactly how it will play out.

I got a chance to combine 2 things I've wanted to do all year - fly fish out West, and fish with a person I know only through the blogsphere. I contacted Rebecca Garlock - The Outdooress - and she was A)available to fish, and B) willing to show me around. This would shape up to be a high point of my 2010 fishing year. We talked the week before the trip and decided to spend the first day on her favorite Oregon water and the second on the Middle Fork of the Boise river. Vastly different pieces of water, which is the way I like to fish. This is the synopsis of Day 1.

The water we fished will remain nameless. She honors that request from those who fish it, and I will as well. I will say this, though - it is public water and accessible to anyone and everyone. This is NOT private water.

We got to the river around 11 AM. She mentioned that there was a lot of water she had never fished, so I suggested we try a new area and experiment. We found a pull-off, checked it out, and decided to give it a shot.

The river at the first spot

Rebecca gearing up at at the famous "Fish Cruiser"

I knew that Rebecca fishes alone most of the time, and I do as well. This river was the perfect place for us to fish in our respective comfort zones - on our own - while still being just across the river. It was a perfect blend of fishing alone, with a friend. I waded across the river while she started up the near bank. The arid land surrounding the river was loaded with grasshoppers, so we both went with the Western standard "hopper and dropper" rigs. I used a flashback pheasant tail for my dropper initially. It took me a little while to get used to the 2 fly rig, but I got into the routine quickly enough. The river has a lot of grass / weed in it , and my clumsy wading spooked a trout I estimated to be around 16"-17". I thought to myself "Geez - that was a great trout. I just spooked the only good fish I 'll see all day" Luckily, that thought wasn't anywhere near reality.

My first trout came at 12:55, a 16" brown on the dropper. These fish have BEAUTIFUL coloration.

(As always, click on the photo for a larger picture)

Incoming brown on a dropper

16" brown

Now, I realized I had a (minor) problem - these fish were bigger than the ones I'm used to catching, and I'm waist deep in a river. So the only way to photograph them is hold them in one hand and take a shot with the other hand. Not the most artistic poses, but you do what you have to do.

At 1:10 the next trout nailed the dropper. Hey - this is starting to be FUN! [the way I know the times is via the info embedded in the pictures]

Another big brown trout

I had gotten into a bunch of fish in a deep run. I missed a few along the way, too - some on the hopper, some on the dropper. At 1:30, I got a BIG hit on the hopper and was into a good fish. After a 10 minute fight, I landed what is my biggest brown trout from a river ever. Rebecca saw me fighting the fish and waded over to net it (I landed all my others by hand). She also took this picture of a happy fisherman! A beautiful 22-1/2" brown trout.

Hell - after that fish, if I had fallen in the water and broken my fly rod, it would have been a great day! We decided to move upstream, get a bite to eat, and try some other water.

We moved up a few miles to an area Rebecca fishes often. We started 2 riffles down from our destination pool and went at them again. This water (initially) was a little shallower than before. I missed a few good fish (again) and got a few small streambred fish - 1 brown and 1 rainbow.

Spot #2

Small, streambred fish

At 5:00, things started to get interesting. I should also note that I switched droppers to a beadhead gold Lightning Bug. It ended up being the "Magic Fly" - until I lost the only one I brought. First came a brown on the Lightning Bug at 5:00 pm.

Incoming trout

Another big brown

At 5:20, after a couple of missed hits, another trout on the Lightning Bug. This one was obviously big from the start. It actually did something I've never had happen on a trout - it took enough line out that I saw my backing. Now, understand that my reel is click pawl set light, and I use my fingers for most of the drag, but he tore a lot of line out!

I measured him against my rod's butt section and he came in a tad over 21"!

The carnage wasn't over yet. At 5:40 I hooked and landed still another big brown. I was literally getting tired from fighting these trout. (yea,yea - I hear all the sympathy pouring in)

This was the third BIG trout in 40 minutes. The fights had to be 10-12 minutes each, so the fish were all taken literally back-to-back-to-back.

I decided to relax a little and took a bunch of pics of Rebecca, who was across the river from me at the time.

The Outdooress with a big brown trout

Working the edges

I sent Rebecca a bunch of other pictures for her to post on her site, including one of her holding a 20" class brown!

The last fish of the day for me came at 7:50. I got a few other 16 inch class fish but didn't get photos of them. This last one took a hopper, and I had to bring him in through a thick weed area. I thought that he would dive into the slop, but I managed to get him in. He went just over the 20" mark on th rod.

Coming in over the weeds

ANOTHER great brown trout

We spent the last hour of daylight on another stretch of river, watching from the bank for the epic evening hatches Rebecca had talked about. Well, they didn't happen this evening. There were fish rising, but not to the extent she was used to. And - she was downright bummed! I had just experienced the best day of catching big trout in my life, and Rebecca was APOLOGIZING to me for the lack of an epic evening hatch to end the day!!! Are you kidding me? She had just taken me on a day I'll remember forever - nothing could ruin that. Certainly not by ending the day watching rising fish in a beautiful area, with a new friend.

It doesn't get any better than that.

And we still have one more day to fish!

OK - 1 picture

2010-08-20T23:24:00.003-05:00

OK - 1 picture to help you make it through the tortorous weekend before the "Official post" (like it's really that important to anyone)

This is one of the smaller trout from Day One. And, no, I'm not kidding.

A Teaser Post

2010-08-20T00:35:00.003-05:00

Those of you who read "The Outdooress" (and you all should!) know that my plans for this week included meeting up and fishing with Rebecca in Idaho. A detailed post - maybe 2 - will follow over the weeekend. However, to alleviate some of the suspense:

- The fishing was phenomonal

- Rebecca and her husband are the perfect hosts/ guides, and any expectations were exceeded exponentially

- There are now actual pictures of "The Outdooress" fishing and catching fish.

Stay tuned

My shortest post ever

2010-08-14T23:30:00.002-05:00

I just read Tami Curtis' comment re: "What lure did I use" and it struck me - I assume everyone reading knows what I'm referring to when I say the name of a fly, but they probably don't. So - this is what I was using on the trout stream Thursday. NOTE - the pink San Juan Worm is there for comparison to the "Stripper Pole" variety I used. The others are a size 16 tan bead head scud (lower right) and a size 18 bead head rubber-legged flashback Copper John (upper right). the rainbows came on the worm; the smaller wild browns on the scud, and the largest brown on the Copper John.

Finally, some trout.

2010-08-13T23:16:00.005-05:00

The morning after my meeting with Troutrageous, I had plans to meet up with one of my best friends and do some trout fishing for a few hours.

Now, at least on the surface, this was hardly the time to be out fly fishing for trout. Pennsylvania, like most of the country, has been wrapped up in a nasty heat wave, and hasn't had much rain, either. That usually means stream temps push into the upper limits of a trout's tolerance. Even if you an find trout in these water temps it is often advised to leave them alone and not stress them out.

All this is true. At least it is for most waters. But I wasn't going to "most waters". I was going to spend the morning on some special waters.

The Tulpehocken Creek, or Tully as it is locally known, is well known among fly fishermen throughout PA and NJ. The primary area of interest is the area below Blue March Lake, known as the tailrace. It has a well known, consistent trico hatch and receives heavy fishing pressure. I've fished these waters in the past, but not on this short trip. I was fishing the private headwaters.

The stream originates as the outflow pumped from a limestone quarry. The initial mile or so of the creek is a long standing private club with a hatchery license. The wait list to get into the club can be measured in lifetimes. The water is constant temperature and flow and supports the lush weed and aquatic growth prevalent in other PA limestoners. The stream is never wider than 20'. There is quite a bit of natural reproduction on this section, from both browns and rainbows. That's right - wild rainbows in PA. I know Falling Spring has some natural rainbow reproduction, and I believe there are a few others, but not many at all. The stream is stocked as well.

There are a LOT of fish in these waters.

The rule of thumb here is: if you want to catch a lot of fish, use tandem nymphs. Sow bugs, scuds, and pheasant tails are the order of the day. I always throw in my own wrinkle - usually a San Juan worm. And, I rationalize, if a plain SJW is good, a bead-head SJW with some crystal flash in it must be even better. You know - a stripper pole worm. You can pound some fish up on crickets, ants and beetles, but the action is far slower.

Our morning started after a hard rain at 8 am. It was about 84 out, and had to be 100% humidity. I decided to go straight after the numbers and used the stripper pole bright red flashy worm. And immediately got into rainbows. I landed 5, hooked and lost 2, and missed numerous strikes in the first run I fished. The first trout was a stockie rainbow; the others from this run were BEAUTIFUL natives.

And, (probably because I didn't check the camera settings before I started shooting pics) the pics are not very good. They are not focused well. Sorry.

I moved upstream, picking up fish pretty consistently. I added a second fly below the SJW - a bead head sow bug - and started picking up small, wild browns. Beautiful fish. Finally, toward the end of the trip, I picked up a big brown on a Pheasant Tail'

This water is always great, and very private. I certainly don't always fish private water, but I don't pass up the opportunity to do so when it presents itself, either. Especially when I have a very short amount of time to fish.

Again, I apologize for the picture quality, but the fish were so colorful that it shows even with the crappy photos.

Finally, next week I should have another posting on fly fishing for trout, as I plan to be out West. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it comes together!

A nice fish on

A wild rainbow in the water

Stream bred rainbow

Another wild 'bow coming in

Beautiful wild rainbow. The color on the gill plate, brightness of the band, white tips on the fins - just beautiful fish

Nice streambred brown trout

An Actual Accomplishment!

2010-08-13T23:06:00.002-05:00

One of my goals for this year, as I have stated numerous times during these posts, is to meet and/or fish with some of the folks I've come to know through these blogs. Well, I finally got to meet one of you. Troutrageous and I met for beers and a bite to eat on Wednesday nite.

(I know most of you are familiar with his blog, but if you are not, click on through my Blog List)

When you meet someone in person for the first time, you're not really sure what to expect. You think you "know" the person because you read their writings, but meeting in person is different.

This meeting did not disappoint (at least it didn't disappoint me!!) It is so nice to spend time with someone as passionate as you are about fishing, exchanging stories, and sharing a great evening. His choice of meeting place - the Sly Fox pub - was perfect.

Thanks, Trout - I look forward to our next meeting! Not sure if I'll catch the Tenkara bug or not, but you have at least piqued my interest.

And then - PPOOOFFF - they were gone

2010-08-08T18:36:00.002-05:00

I went out for the third day in a row on my subdivision pond. The water coming in has now been reduced to a normal trickle. I went out with my son at 1:00 pm today. Overcast, a light drizzle - perfect. Instead of the usual bass gear, I took an ultralight spin rod and a few grubs, Cubby jigs, and 1 UL spinnerbait. i wanted to see if I could get any of the ponds (sometimes) big bluegills to bite.

Well, they didn't.

So I worked my way toward the inflow. over a span of 20 minutes, I caught 5 largemouth on the Cubby, and 1 on the spinnerbait.

The largest was 10" long.

The bass have moved back to their summer haunts. the good news for the trip - the fish in the picture below. At least they are spawning successfully!

A hungry baby bass

Conditions change by the hour - you have to adapt

2010-08-07T15:39:00.005-05:00

After yesterdays epic largemouth bonanza, I decided to see if the bass were still in "attack mode". I waited until High Noon, and went out at 12:10, under bright skies. Conditions generally accepted as "crappy". This time, I only took along a bag of Yum Dingers, 1 wide gap hook, 1 swim jig, and a bag of creature trailers for the swim jig.

I tried the west pond first - the one that is supposed to be good. The water was flowing through the inflow, but it was clear and shallow. And, for me, fishless.

West pond inlet - too shallow and not enough incoming water to pull in the fish

I walked along the east pond to the inlet, picking up one small bass along the way on the swim jig. When I got up to the inlet, the water was still flowing but at a noticeably lower rate than yesterday afternoon. Also, I was on the other side of the inlet today. I started with the swim jig, missed a hit or 2, but wasn't real impressed. I switched over to the Yum Dinger and started covering more water.

I started picking up bass on the Dinger. They were definitely relating to the current but were no longer tight against the grass. The fish were all over the Yum Dinger, and I caught 3 quick ones. Then I snagged a stump and broke off the only worm hook I had brought along. I went back to the swim jig and caught 2 more, but it wasn't as good as with the Dinger. In the span of 20 hours, they had moved off the banks about 15' - 30'. In the next 25 minutes I landed 5 bass and lost 2, while missing a few hits. The fish were pretty nice sized, including one big one (the terrible picture of the good fish is due to no level ground to set the camera on and having to tilt it up in the grass)

So, even though I caught a few fish, I had to adapt to a changing pattern. Moral of the story - ALWAYS pay attention to the conditions, and how they might affect the fish. Without a new barrage of rain, the bass in the pond will disperse back to the deeper weed edges for the rest of the summer.

This bass ate a Yum Dinger

Another chunky pond bass

Biggest bass of the morning, and one of the worst pictures ever!!

This is the view of the east pond, standing on the road above the inflow

This is why you ALWAYS fish when the opportunity presents itself!

2010-08-06T17:13:00.005-05:00

I took a vacation day today. No real plans - just relax and do whatever we feel like doing. My wife and I went to our local coffee shop, ran some chores, ... Around 3:30, she was watching something on TV, so I walked over to the ponds in our subdivision. The water was high but just the right clarity, so I decided to go over and make a few casts.

These ponds are not the ones I write about and fish on over lunch. These ponds are right across the street from my house. In the 7 years I've lived here, they have gone from being occasionally good, to great, to mediocre, to absolutely sucking. Not really sure why. I fished them ONCE in 2009 (not even a hit) and not at all this year. Talking to the other guys in the neighborhood who fish, the word is that the pond on our side - the east side - stinks, and the west pond is OK.

Before I go on, a little background. Over the past 2 weeks, we've had in excess of 9" of rain here, and have been under flood advisories for most of that time. We had a HUGE surge of water pour into the ponds last week. The tiny creek that feeds the ponds - a rivulet, really - was up 5' and breached the roads. It is still flowing fast, but the water is pretty clear. so I gave it a try. On the way out the door, my wife asked why I was going - isn't it usually bad in the middle of the afternoon? My son wouldn't go either.

You can see my vast assortment of lures I l took along in my pockets - 1 trick worm, 2 swim jigs, a bag of trailers, a bag of Yum Dingers, and 1 spinnerbait. Fished the worm and spnnnerbait for 15 minutes as I worked toward the inlet - nothing. But, on the last cast with the spinnerbait, I made an inadvertent cast into the junk at the inlet and, as I was ripping it across the vegetation - BOOM - a blowup!. Hmmmmm...

I put on a 1/4 oz. swim jig and a Strike King trailer, and immediately got into fish. they were tight to the trash, on current breaks. To make a long story short, in the next 25 minutes I landed 8 largemouth, had 3 shake off, and missed about 5-6 hits. All were decent fish, with 1 being a REALLY nice bass.

And - THAT is why you always go when the opportunity presents itself. You just never know what will happen!

My Tackle pack

The inflow at the East Pond

1st bass

2nd Bass

3rd Bass

4th Bass

Best Bass - sorry fo the goofy picture - I had to do a self-timed and the grass is high!

These current breaks are where the fish were holding. Click on the picture to see it in better detail

MY Urban Jungle

2010-08-04T23:07:00.006-05:00

A recent remark by Yours Truly, in a comment to a Musings of Murphyfish post, led John (the talented writer of M. of M.) to write his most recent musing. The subject matter is the abundance of wildlife in urban settings. [NOTE - this is not a synopsis of John's post. If you haven't done so, simply click on his blog through my Blog List and read his works.] It all started when I mentioned that I believe there is a lot of overlooked "stuff" in our own backyards and vicinities. For me, it literally IS in my own backyard.

Interestingly enough, I have a few components of the "Anti-Ecosystem" in my yard. The grass is mowed all spring, summer, and fall, the weeds are killed, and the edges are tight - all compliments of my wife, I'm quick to add. In many cases, this style of lawn maintenance leaves nowhere for the critters. But, we have a LOT of things living in our yard. Partially because we plant appropriately for the fauna. We have extensive perennial gardens, and many of the plants are there specifically to attract wildlife. We also feed the birds throughout the year.

The following pictures are all from the back yard. I have some other pictures I was unable to find this evening - pheasants in the snow, and praying mantis, to name a few. Still, we have some good "stuff" in the yard, and I'm always trying to capture it on film. I have yet to get a good shot of the sole hummingbird who appears briefly each summer, but I'll get him eventually.

What is really sort of amazing, when you sit back and think about it, is that we live in the absolute WORST type of development to attract nature - essentially a recently developed cornfield. There are no substantial trees because the oldest house in the development is 12 years old. Consequently, there is little shade for diversity among the flowers planted. And we're surrounded by other developments that were very recently cornfields, so there is no plethora of wildlife waiting to come into our yard from the adjacent property.

Still, we do what we can, and we have fun watching the stuff in the yard. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

NEWS FLASH - I will actually be FISHING in the coming weeks - once next week in PA, and the following week out west. I will take so many pictures my camera explodes! So, this may be the end of the "I wish these were fish pictures, but the best thing I have right now is my Yard" posts.

A moth on the siding

Hummingbird Moth

Butterfly

Moth

A single morning's haul of toads from the window wells. My wife checks for, and rescues, the toads in window wells every day.

A baby rabbit

Hawk on the chair. We feed a lot of birds, and that in turn feeds a bunch of hawks!

Goldfinch

Mallards in the snow

TOAD!

Male Cardinal in the snow

The Cure to what Ails You

2010-07-30T13:20:00.002-05:00

I needed to run a few errands today over lunch and, since I ALWAYS have a rod (or 3) in the trunk along with some tackle, figured I might as well try a few casts at the pond.

I hadn't been fishing for over a month. Usually, the pond slows down considerably over the summer as the water heats up and often turns the color of pea soup with the algae blooms. Catfish get fairly active, but bass are quite tough to find, especially without a boat. There are really only 1 or 2 spots to fish from shore.

But - I'd rather get skunked trying for a fish or 2 over lunch than do the usual eat-and-run lunch. So - off to the ponds.

My game plan before I got there was to tie on a Cubby and try to get a few 'gills. At least I can usually get a couple of them to bite. When I opened the tackle bag, an old (at least 20 years old) Rebel Teeny Pop-R caught my eye. I have not fished with one of these for eons, even though they used to be one of my favorite lures, especially when wading for smallmouth bass. So - I tied it on and tried to make a largemouth or 2 come to the top at noon.

The action of his particular lure was perfect. Nothing really replicates a perfectly tuned Pop-R. I have dozens of other popping lures but none sound quite like the old Pop-R's. I was having a ball simply casting and making the lure do different things - make it dive a little, slow pop it, run it across the water, ... Well, apparently a few little largemouth found it enticing, because I fished for 30 minutes and got 5 hits, landing 4 fish. 1 was tiny - 6". 2 were around a foot. The next was maybe 13-14" - a nice fish, especially on my 4-1/2' ultralite rod! And, my last one was a solid , chunky 16" bass, which surprised the hell out of me!

I feel rejuvenated, like I received a shot of adrenaline. Just being out there was great - saw a few really nice butterflies that I hadn't seen yet this year, and saw a buck in velvet. The fish were just icing on the cake.

Sorry - no pics - didn't plan on fishing so I didn't bring a camera.

Get out there and go fishing -it does a body (and soul) good.

Still Kicking, just not fishing

2010-07-19T23:21:00.002-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I have been serioously busy with work - at a trade show all last week, with heavy travel prior to the show. No time to fish or post (nothing to post, really). Rest assured, I'm keeping up with all your blog postings, and plan to get back in the saddle again shortly.

Bumblebee quest

2010-06-25T21:20:00.005-05:00

After looking over the pictures from yesterday's post, and the one's I didn't include, I decided to just let the camera do the work and quit messing around with specialty "SCENE" options. I went back to auto-focus and went after a good bumble bee photo.

I don't know if they are any good, but they were fun to take. My wife thinks I'm nuts for stalking the yard insects, but I like it. There are always some surprising pictures when I download them.

Here are a few from this afternoon's "Bumblebee Quest". And, a few new flower pictures.

Enjoy. And, as always, click on the picture for a much better view.

White coneflower

a cool looking Rubeckia

A little bee in the center of a Rubeckia. We always called these "Sweat Bees" when I was a kid.

Gaillardia, or "Blanket Flower"

Trumpet Gaillardia

This ought to be a post and picture fest about smallmouth bass, but it's not.

2010-06-24T22:52:00.001-05:00

I was supposed to be returning from La Reserve Beauchene today. For the uninitiated, Beauchene is one of the absolute best smallmouth waters on the planet. No, you won't get fish as large as May smallies on Lake Erie. But you will get big bass, big numbers, and stay at a terrific resort while fishing beautiful, private water. We've had a reservation for this trip for about 6 months. I've been there once before, about 8 years ago, and can't wait to return. But, alas, some things are just not meant to be. At least until next year.

One of our party of 4 FINALLY got an offer and contract on his house. Naturally, the closing date fell while we were to be fishing. If he changed the date, it would have cost him 10 GRAND, and possibly lost the sale. We negotiated with the lodge and they allowed us to move our deposit to next year. So - no bass for me.

Toad and Gargoyle

Toad

Instead of fishing for my favorite fish on a great piece of water, I got to stay home and literally watch my grass grow. We've had non-stop rain and warm temps, and I've had to cut the grass every 3 or 4 days! THAT part of the yard maintenance is getting old in a hurry. But the flowers are growing, so I take some pictures of them when I see something I like. So if you were expecting bass pictures - sorry. The only ecosystem I've been seeing recently is in my back yard, so that's what you get. I might sneak out Saturday morning for catfish, just so I can post a picture of a fish.

Our lillies have been really nice and colorful this year, so that's what you'll get on today's pictures for the most part. I need to make some shutter speed adjustments to capture the bumblebee's that are flocking to the freshly opened bee balm, but I'll post what I have. Enjoy.

And, finally, my lame bumblebee attempt

More pictures from PA

2010-06-13T23:14:00.005-05:00

I had a bunch of pictures from a week ago that didn't make it on to the original post, so I figured I'd post them as "stand-alones". Most are self explanatory; some have captions. Enjoy. And, as always, click on the photo to view it in full size. It really DOES make a difference.

A typical scene on a PA trout stream.

This fawn is less than a week old. A little too far for a good, clear pic, though.

Trout fishing - Finally

2010-06-12T20:34:00.007-05:00

It's been way too long since my last post. I've actually done a little fishing in that time, but also had a LOT of work, and just haven't been able to carve out the time to do a post.

(Make sure you click on the pictures to see them full sized)

The cabin - I LOVE IT here!

The view of the creek from the cabin

The big palamino trout just downstream from the cabin

This adventure took place on June 2nd. I got a chance to spend a day back in PA on some trout waters. It's a lot of travel for a day's worth of fishing, but I think it's worth it. When I get back to PA and have only a day, I really need to make a decision beforehand as to whether I'll fish the stocked, larger streams, or spend the day on the tiny, unstocked Class A Wild Trout waters. The stream where the cabin is located is a very popular stocked trout stream. I've had many happy days on this water, and basically learned to flyfish on it. As you can see from the picture, it is a beautiful stream, and has some pretty nice fish stocked in - at least occasionally. The palamino trout in the picture was at least 18", maybe 20" long. Even though there are trout literally a cast away from the cabin porch, inevitably I am drawn to the remote tributaries.

Windfall Creek

This was no different. I spent my one day there on a small feeder stream to a larger feeder of the main stream in the valley. This is SMALL, skinny water inhabited by wild native brook trout. The prevailing wisdom says that if you can get a dry fly over them without spooking them, they'll hit it. It's not about the right fly choice - I fished a red #16 Humpy all day. So, at face value, it really shouldn't be that hard.

Little native brookie

Well, it is. The grass/ tree limbs/ fallen trees limit EVERY cast. Most of your casts are roll casts. Nothing is longer than 30-35'. The best looking plunge pools - the ones with the longest deep water - are actually the toughest to catch anything in. Why? You inevitably spook a coupe of 5" brookies in the tail of the pool, and they madly dash into the heart of the pool and scare the hell out of every fish in the area. I found out years ago that the best, most productive water on these streams is the short stretches of pocket water. Might only be 2 feet long and a foot deep, but the current hides the fish (and you) and they don't spook as easily.

Love these natives!

Tough to be stealthy here

I've never been able to pinpoint the allure of these tiny trout . I've caught hundreds, if not thousands of them in PA and NY, and have caught a total of 2 over 10". My fishing partners all think I'm nuts for chasing with them, but I love 'em. They're beautiful, and they're SUPPOSED to be there. They just belong.

I caught a bunch of fish on this day, all small. My weapon of choice for these streams is a 5 pc., 6'9" Winston 3 wt. LT rod. A small box of flies, some dessicant and floatant, extra tippet material, and you're ready to go. And, of course a camera.

Fallen tree

I saw some interesting things on the roadless valley I fished. As I was walking out, I saw a female grouse ahead of me on a dirt road and, as I neared her, she put on a terrific "crippled bird" display. She would come out in the open, drag her wing in the dirt, call to me, and try to lure me away from where I was standing. I had heard about this, but never seen it personally. There was obviously a brood of chicks nearby. I saw the grass move, and smiled as I walked toward the hen. After she "lured me away", she flew back to her chicks. Very cool.

Grouse on a dirt road - sorry for the blurry image

I also saw something that I've never seen or heard of. I welcome ANY AND ALL comments as to this behavior. I was walking and noticed a bunch of butterflies ahead. That's not unusual - there are a ton of butterflies in these mountains, mostly along the creeks. But as I neared, I saw that they were on an old, not-quite-stripped deer carcass. Why would butterflies gather on a deer ribcage??? Did I miss the evolution chapter where they became carnivores?

Butterflies on a deer carcass

More "Carnivore Butterflies"

I stopped along the stream that this tributary feeds into as I left. It is a stocked stream with a fair amount of natural reproduction, too. A pile of stocked rainbows were stacked up under a small bridge. Even though they were very picky in the gin clear waters, it just wasn't the same as fishing for wild fish. I watched them for a while and left. On the way back to the cabin, I saw 2 Eastern Box turtles on the road, which I "assisted" on their journey across the road. Then I came upon a less gracious turtle crossing the road. He wasn't nearly as happy as the box turtles to let me help him along his way!

2 visible trout below the bridge on Cross Fork Ck.

A snapper crossing the road

Living in Illinois is OK, but when I return - even briefly - to the mountains, be they PA or COL, I remember how much I miss them. Short of moving, I really need ot figure out a way to spend more time in the mountains.

Bass on beds in the ponds

2010-05-22T21:28:00.004-05:00

The kids fishing the pond

Well, the time of plenty is coming to a close. Many of the bass are on their beds on the upper pond. While I can tease / torment them into biting (most of the time) I prefer to let them alone and got on with their spawning. I like catching them just before they go on beds, but that time has passed for this year.

I took my son and his friend Josh out to the ponds this evening. We had been out there 5 weeks ago and Josh was very excited to go again. I wasn't sure how the fishing would be, but we went anyway. Better to fish than not to fish.

Joey's biggest bass

I let the 2 boys do the fishing while I looked for fish and unhooked some for them. They started off pretty hot, with each catching a few right away. Then, it just got tough. WI had them fishing 7" Bubblegum colored Zoom trick worms, because you can get a lot of action out of them, and you can usually see the fish eat them.

Josh's best bass

That was the bait the bass bit for them this evening. I threw a spinnerbait, too, and had 3 or 4 on, but didn't set the hook on them - I was prospecting to see where they were. The pond is getting very weedy now, and it is not an easy task for the kids to fish without getting weeded up on every cast. But they both caught very nice sized bass tonite.

Another one for Joey

We ended up on the lower pond and caught a ton of egg-filed, pre-spawn gills. A handful of crappie came in, too, and I got 5 walleye on a 1/8 oz. maribou Roadrunner. A couple of trout were hooked, and it was a good evening to be out.

The only thing that was not so good is the damned cottonwood trees - they are dropping their namesake cottony crap, and it gets all over the line and lures.

Oh yeah - saw 3 snakes and a muskrat. A good evening to be out.

What a difference a week makes

2010-05-20T21:41:00.002-05:00

Well, my previous post detailed the effects of cold rain and falling temperatures. It is NOT a good recipe if fresh caught fish are on the menu!

The past week has remained cool, but is warming. And there has been no rain, until today. Even today's rain is a steady, warm rain and will probably be good for the fishing.

The bass are getting back to their previous positioning, but still are not quite as aggressive as they were prior to the shutdown. However, it seems like the bigger prespawn bluegills are moving shallower and are aggressive. They are still bunched up, so you have to move around to find them, but when you do, there are probably a bunch of them around that area.

Crappies are still shallow on the ponds - I thought they would be off the shallow structure by now. Everything is biting a little better each day.

Just goes to show that even after things shut down, they DO come back. Just give it a chance

Why you need to "strike while the iron is hot"

2010-05-16T19:35:00.002-05:00

Over the past few weeks I've tried to detail the progression of fish activity on the local ponds as the largemouth get ready to spawn. I'm sure it gets a little boring and repetitious to read about catching 10 nice bass over lunch, getting a bunch with my son and his friends, ... It actually can get a little monotonous catching all these fish (Well, not too monotonous, but the suspense is missing from these jaunts, and that is a big part of the unknown). So, why do I continue to go out so often and catch what may be the same fish on the same patterns?

2 reasons: 1) Because I simply love to fish and don't care what I'm catching, and 2) because, inevitably in nature, weeks occur like last week, and put an end to your patterns and teh behavior of the fish.

Last week we got 2+ inches of cold rain overnight on Wednesday. Our local rivers and creeks flooded. The ponds, which are spring fed, turned the color of chocolate milk. And the fishing came to an abrupt and complete stop.

That's right - the ponds shut down. On Friday, over lunch, I spent the better part of an hour on the upper pond (the one full of largemouth and 'gills) throwing spinnerbaits and Senkos. There was about 3" of visibility and the water was cold. I got - NOTHING. No hits, no swirls, nothing. I didn't really expect much, but I had to try.

This is why you have to strike when the iron is hot. The weather can change everything overnight. And, in my experience, the weather changes in the Spring of the year are more dramatic and have a greater effect on the fish than any other time of year. So, when it is good, and the water temp is stable, and the natural progression of spring is moving along nicely - get out there as often as you can. You never know when Mother Nature will deal you a hand that will put any successful fishing on hold.

I'll be interested to see how long it takes for the bass in the ponds to return to their previous level of ferocity. I'll keep you posted, as I should be able to get out a few times this coming week.

Any fishing is better than no fishing at all

2010-05-14T20:44:00.003-05:00

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to fish with an old friend who had moved to Wisconsin not too long ago. Ken has fished everywhere, and he and I have spent some time together in Canada fishing a number of years ago. We decided to hit Balsam Lake in western Wisconsin and see what would happen.

The largemouth were all about this size. Note the 4 layers of clothes as I tried to keep warm.

Now, neither of us had ever been to this piece of water before in our lives. So we did it the old-fashioned way - got a map and asked people. We ended up catching about 15 small largemouth bass and a half dozen small pike. The bass wanted a 1/4 oz. chartreuse spinnerbait and were definitely relating to wood. In addition to the spinnerbait, fish were caught on a 1/8 oz. jig with a 3" grub, and a Suspending Rogue. Pike were scattered. Water temp was 53 - 54 - still pretty cold. The day was pretty miserable - cold, windy, occasional drizzle.

Cold, nasty day ahead

BUT - we caught fish, spent part of the day outside, and, as we said frequently, caught our favorite fish - the one's that wanted to bite. We also saw 2 separate pairs of loons, and 2 eagles. the loons were pretty spooky, so the picture had to be taken on zoom, and is kind of shaky.

Loons

Any fishing is better than no fishing!!

Fish Pictures

2010-05-07T22:37:00.006-05:00

Warning - this might end up being the post where my blog "Jumps the Shark"

I've said repeatedly on this blog that I wanted to expand my photography experiences and post them on here. Wait - actual photography is what you see on a couple of the blogs on my Blog List - A Focus on Nature and Hannibal's Animals jump to mind. I merely take pictures. I don't have professional grade cameras, or filters, or anything but a new-ish compact camera. But I still like to take pictures and post them on this blog.

The advances made recently in digital cameras - and by recent, I mean the past 5 years or so - are mind boggling. My first digital that was better than a disposable was a Canon 6 mp Power Shot. It had a few scene modes available, and took pretty decent pictures. My current camera is a Samsung TL 220 12.2 mp camera that has so many features I'll never figure them all out. Trying to get my hands around the functions I will use is why I've been carrying the camera along on every trip to the ponds (when I remember). Plus - I like looking at other people's photos in their blog posts, so I put some in mine too.

One feature I've always admired but have never really used much is macro-photography - taking focused photos from 1" - 5" away from the subject. Since fish are "my thing" I thought I'd try it on them first.

As with all the photos I post, you can click on the photo and see a larger version. I think this will be necessary to view these pictures. on a personal note, I really like the way they came out. There is a lot of subtle coloration on them. So, without further ado - UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH THE FISH FROM MY PONDS.

Crappie

Bluegill

Largemouth Bass

Walleye

(The walleye cheek looks like it has gold dust on it!)

Assuming I don't get bombarded with comments like "You're an idiot -what were you thinking???", I'll continue doing this type of thing as I catch more species to photograph. Pumpkinseeds and Green Sunfish should be soon. Ah hell - I'll probably do it even if no likes it but me. After all, it is my blog!!

Pictures from the pond, and a fishing update

2010-05-06T19:57:00.004-05:00

The first largemouth I've seen setting up shallow - spawning time is approaching.

I am REALLY trying to take more pictures. But, it seems that everytime I find myself around water, I leave the camera in my pocket and cast away.

I've been out to the ponds twice this past week over lunch, trying to capitalize on the increasingly better fishing. The problem is, the fishing hasn't been increasingly better. It hasn't been bad, but it has been the free-for-all I've expected. We've had some pretty cold nights, and I think that might have something to do with the fish being lethargic around lunch. Maybe they went crazy around 5 pm - who knows?

Even though it hasn't been crazy good, the fishing has been consistent. Especially for the walleye, which seem to have hit a growth spurt. As I've said before, I've never seen them over 15" here, but I've caught a bunch of 15" - 17" recently.

A crappie suspended next to a log in the water

An incoming walleye

I have taken a few pictures, and am part way through a little project that is turning out better than I thought it would (so far). I'll keep you in the dark for now, but will post some pictures of this little project soon.

A nice rainbow that ate a 2" grub intended for panfish

The panfish are biting, and, as you see from the picture, largemouth are getting up on their beds. Get out there and fish!

A water snake decides to swim under the dock I'm standing on.

EVERYTHING was biting today!

2010-05-02T21:42:00.007-05:00

With the exception of a brief lunchtime foray a week ago, I have not been out to the ponds for 2 weeks. That's not really a big deal most of the time, but in the springtime, when the fish are in pre-spawn and aggressive, I like to get out every chance I get. Well, once in 2 weeks has been every chance I've had. For some reason I've had a very hectic work and travel schedule recently, so fishing has had to wait.

Until this afternoon.

Landing one of Joey's bass

Another nice pond bass

This bass puts a good bend in a dropshot rod!

I did my yard duty yesterday - lugging bags of mulch around, laying the mulch. planting flowers, ... I made the suggestion that "maybe" we ought to go to the ponds on Sunday afternoon, and my wife and son somewhat begrudgingly agreed. (They're not quite as fanatical as me - not even close, really). The upper pond (bass and 'gills) was first on the list at 3 PM. I started with a 3/8 oz. strike King Burner spinnerbait and , somewhat surprisingly, didn't get a hit for a bout 7-8 casts. Then they turned on (or I started retrieving the way they wanted it) and it was GAME ON. I caught pretty much as many bas as I wanted to catch, all heavy pre-spawn fish. They seem to be holding just off the edge of their bedding areas. They'll probably be up on beds within the week, but not quite yet. My son decided to join me, and I gave him a pack of 5" watermelon Senkos. He was into fish immediately. You can see in the photo of Joey fighting the bass that there is concrete slabs along the dam on the pond. the fish were on the bottom about 3 feet in front of the rock. They'll move up into the breaks in the rocks to spawn.

Another nice bass for Joey

Joey fishing along the rocks

I tried a buzzbait - nothing like topwaters - but only had one hit. I want to make a short video when they get keyed in on buzzbaits. So, w got our fill of big largemouth, and Joey did something I've never done in 10 years of fishing this pond - he got a channel cat. Not one, but 2 nice cats, on Senkos. I've never seen anything but largemouth and bluegills in this pond in 10 years. Of course, I never fish bait here either, so that might have something to do with the lack of catfish caught. Well, today 2 of them wanted his Senko. And, the big fat watersnake was sunning himself on the tree limb. I've seen one small one 2 weeks ago, but this was the first big one of the year. I looked back in my blog and found that, LY, I took a picture of a big fat one on the same tree limb on May 7, 2009.

A CATFISH from the Upper Pond!

The big water snake

We decided to go down to the lower pond and try to get a few small trout for the frying pan. A bunch of trout were stocked a few weeks ago, and this year some smaller ones - around 10" - were included. These are a great size for the pan - the big ones taste "mushy". Now, I'm pretty much a die-hard catch and release trout guy, but these fish are put here to be used. The water warms too much in the summer months to support trout, so they are here to be used. And I don't mind an occasional trout in the pan.

A couple of nice pond bass that fell to a spinnerbait

My first 10 casts with a 1/24 oz. white Rooster Tail resulted in 9 fish and a couple of misses. The first was a BIG trout - too big for me to eat. Then it was small walleye, 'gills, crappie, more 'gills, and finally a small trout. The shallows are now swarming with gills and crappie, and you can see some big largemouth cruising the shallows. This pond is deeper and cooler than the upper pond, so the bass are not as close to spawn as they are in the upper pond. I got sick of removing the treble hook from the fish and went to a 2" grub. We got our fill of 'gills and crappie, a few small walleye and bass, and lost a bunch of trout. The panfish were lucky I wasn't in the mood to clean panfish tonite! All were released.

There were wood ducks flying into the pond, a couple of woodpecckers pecking away, and it was a beautiful day to be on the water. I hope you get the chance to get out and enjoy some spring fishing soon.

A GUN GIVEAWAY at Whitetail Woods!!!

2010-04-28T10:47:00.002-05:00

Everyone loves giveaways and contests. I've seen some fairly nice ones in my brief time blogging, but none like this.

Rick Kratzke at Whitetail Woods - you can click over to his blog from my Blog List - is a Product tester / Field Staffer for Connecticut Valley Arms - CVA. Through this affiliation, he is offering the opportunity to win a CVA Wolf 209 Magnum Break Action .50 cal. blackpowder gun!

This is a terrific opportunity for all you hunters to throw your hat in the ring for a great gun - opportunities like this don't happen very often. And, even if you don't win, you'll get better acquainted with a terrific product through Rick's blog, as well as getting more familiar with the blog itself. A Win - Win if there ever was one.

The contest deadline is May 31, so you still have time.

Donation to Susan G. Komen 3-Day event

2010-04-27T21:28:00.002-05:00

In my blog post a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was auctioning off a few batches of lures and donating the proceeds to a friend's 3-Day walk in Tampa FL to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and breast cancer research. I also said in that post that I would make a blog post stating the final total of the donation. The reason for doing this post is to provide complete visibility of the monies raised, so anyone who may have bid, or won, knows that the money is going where I said it was going, and not in my pocket.

The total raised through the auctions was $187.90. I added an additional $12.10 to make it an even $200 donation.

The donation will read as being from Flowing Waters Blog on Mollie's page. http://www.the3day.org/site/TR?px=1298634&fr_id=1472&pg=personal

Thank all of you for you support.

Trying to beat the rain over lunch

2010-04-23T18:49:00.004-05:00

When we got a couple of bass on the upper pond last weekend, I thought that one more week might really turn on the fish. I've been pretty busy all week, and haven't been able to get out to check it out. Then, I watched the weather forecast last night - rain from Friday thru Monday, starting Friday early afternoon. I figured my best chance was to take an early lunch on Friday and head straight for the ponds. I got there a little after 11AM.

Good Spring bass cover

The bass just started moving in shallow last weekend, and wanted a slow retrieve on a small spinnerbait. When they get really aggressive in pre-spawn, they'll crush topwaters and big spinnerbaits. I figured that the best way to see if they were up and aggressive was to tie on a buzzbait and bring it back tight against the rock edges, casting parallel to the shoreline. It took 3 casts to find out if they were going to be aggressive. I got 4 hits on about 15 casts and landed 2 nice largemouth right away. A great way to start, but they were still not crazy turned on. When they are, the strikes are more frequent. So, I switched out to a 1/4 oz. double willow Strike King spinnerbait. Now we were cooking! They hammered the spinnerbait with much more frequency. I lost track of the number of hits and fish landed, but it was GOOD!

A buzzbait bass

This one fell for a spinnerbait

One of the things I frequently do, which a lot of people find ridiculous, is change baits even when I'm on a great pattern. Remember - I'm not in a tournament - just having some fun. So, off came the spinnerbait. I tied on a 3/0 wide gap worm hook and put on a Zoom fluke. I also put a handful of Tiki Stiks and Kinami's in my pocket. Amazingly, the fluke did next to nothing - one hit. I replaced it with a wacky-rigged worm. While it certainly means slower fishing than fishing a spinnerbait, the worm cleans up on these ponds. I pretty much caught fish everywhere I cast as I worked my way back to the car. I caught a bunch of fish in 45 minutes, and I still had about 10 minutes left. NOTE - the reason the pictures are all from the same place is that I had to use the self timer (fishing alone) and the only level place was the roof of my car!

This one fell for a worm

Another nice pre-spawn bass

I got down to the lower pond and pulled out an UL spin rod and a 1/24 oz. jighead / 2" grub combo. It was just as good down there. Crappies were everywhere, I got my biggest walleye ever from the pond - a little over 16", and a few 'gils. Time to go back to work.

I expected to get a bunch of fish on this short trip. There was a big front approaching (the rain started about 5 minutes before I quit) and the time of year is perfect. I've always done well in front of approaching fronts and rain. I really wanted to put the fish on patterns so I could bring kids and newcomers back here in the next couple weeks and have them catch fish. And they will.

Finally, I want to make sure people understand why I make these posts. It's not so people comment and say "Nice Fish". I love to fish just as much if I DON'T post stories and pictures. Use the information you find in these stories, from me and the others who post. If you're anywhere close to the northern Illinois latitude, your ponds are heating up right now, too, and you might catch the biggest fish in your body of water in the near future. Get out and enjoy the feeding frenzy!!

A woodland flower - no idea what it is. Any thoughts, Owl???

Back to what I do best - fishing on the ponds.

2010-04-18T21:33:00.005-05:00

My wife suggested that we go out to the ponds this afternoon. Never one to disappoint her (at least when she suggests we go fishing), I started putting gear in the car. I told our son he could invite one of his friends, so soon we were en route to pick up Josh. I don't think Josh had ever been fishing before - at least not ion a long time. We got to the ponds around 3:45 PM.

I'm always eager to go fishing, but when I take kids along, I REALLY want it to be good - to keep their interest up. I really wasn't very sure about this trip - I had done pretty well on Friday afternoon, but last nite there was a freeze warning, so the water was still cool. In the next couple of weeks, the fish will absolutely turn on to a frenzy, but you never know about the early season. Still, it was a nice afternoon, so we gave it a try.

The kids catchin bluegills at the pond

Joey with a 'gill

One of Josh's bluegills

We fished the upper pond first. It is shallower and holds largemouth bass and bluegills - lots of gills. While the kids ate their Subway sandwiches, I tried to put the fish on a pattern. I found a pretty good concentration about 2' down over 4' of water. they started getting hits right out of the gate. Josh had a few initial hiccups learning to cast and retrieve the spinning gear, but soon he was going just fine. I spent the time unhooking fish and taking pictures. We decided to try the lower pond around 5:30. But first, I decided to try a small spinnerbait along the exposed rock on the dam shoreline. I hadn't caught a bass in this pond all Spring, but it has a LOT of bass in it. I made a total of maybe a dozen casts, hooked 4 bass, and landed 2. the spinnerbait had to be slowly rolled in front of the rocks to get their interest. Like I said - 2 weeks from now it will be buzzbaits and bigger spinnerbaits burned along the weds, but for now, they're moving toward the shallows and wanted something a little slower.

My first decent bass from the ponds in 2010

Another nice pond bass

The lower pond can be hit or miss. It holds more species of fish - bass, crappie, channel cats, walleye, bluegill, rainbow trout. The walleye and crappie are more active in the cooler water, especially in the evening, so I figured we might catch a few of them. I was right. We caught a bunch of bluegills. In 1 small area, we got about 10 crappies. Walleye were caught as the sun dropped. We got a few smaller bass, and lost one good one. Finally, I threw a spinner and hooked 3 trout, landing 2. Josh got a trout on a small grub to end the evenings fishing adventure.

Joey with pond walleye

A decent pond walleye (they don't get very big here)

Josh's trout

Highlights of the evening included: my son sliding down the bank, into the pond (with his arm in a cast). It was shallow, but he got soaked from the knees down, and spent the rest of the evening barefoot. Catching my first nice bas of the year from the ponds. And, best of all, were the words Josh uttered at the end of the evening - "This is even better than video games!"

I love taking kids fishing!

Ultimate Bass Fishing assortment

2010-04-17T20:40:00.002-05:00

Again, I'll start by thanking everyone for checking out or, in some cases, bidding on my auctions on eBay. I still have a few to go. That's the reason for this blog post.

After seeing the positive reaction to the auctions, and the Susan Komen 3-Day event, I decided I should do a little more. After all, I was merely selling baits that were given to me, and donating the proceeds. So - I decided to dig into my own ridiculously large collection of baits and donate MY stuff as an assortment, with the auction proceeds again going to Mollie's efforts in the Tampa 3-day.

This new listing is described (by me) as the ULTIMATE BASS FISHING ASSORTMENT. It is 52 pcs of new, in-the-box bass lures. It has everything from hooks to crankbaits, spinnerbaits to plastics. Feel free to click on the following link to see the auction on eBay. And, if you you have a blog that appeals to bass fishermen, feel free to let people know about the auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320519250817

(You may need to copy and paste the url - I'm having my usual bout of uncooperative hyperlink issues)

This will be my last post on this subject - except for the final tally next weekend. I'll get back to fishing from this point on. I actually had crappie for dinner tonite, compliments of 13 crappie I got at the ponds yesterday. Outstanding evening fishing, and great subsequent eating!!

Wolfy

An auction for the Smallmouth Bass guys, too

2010-04-12T23:25:00.002-05:00

First of all, I have to say I am flattered by the attention that the auctions are getting. Thank you to all who have checked them out, or commented.

I started thinking after I put the auctions up (aren't you really supposed to start thinking BEFORE you do something??) - every auction was geared toward basically the same group of fishermen. So, tonite I posted a Lucky Craft auction targeting the smallmouth bass guys (and gals). I certainly didn't want to make them feel slighted.

The link for the smallmouth auction is http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320516561738 )

And, I will make an offer to my Followers - if any of you win an auction I am running, I will throw in an additional Lucky Craft lure free! Thanks again for supporting a great cause and being a part of the solution

I actually caught a few fish, and doing something that really DOES matter.

2010-04-11T21:19:00.004-05:00

I made it out to the ponds this evening. Yesterday was beautiful and windy, with highs reaching the lower 70's. today was cooler and windy - low 60's I figured the ponds had a chance to heat up since my skunking on Friday, and I was after revenge. I started off on the upper pond, and immediately got into smallish bluegills on 2" grubs. Even though they weren't very big, they meant that the skunk would stay away. Any fish is good fish.

Even the little bluegills are good ones!

We went to the lower pond, and I figured the crappie and walleye might be receptive to the grub. I was half right. I got 5 small walleye, but never saw a crappie. Rounded out the evening with a coupe of gills from the lower pond, and 2 VERY small bass. The sunset was especially nice this evening, too.

****************

As you read in the blog post title, I AM trying to do something that actually matters to someone other than myself. I recently got a box of baits in the mail from a friend. Details aren't important. They were primarily Lucky Craft's. Now, I love fishing LC's, but I already have a lot of them. then, a phone conversation on Friday made up my mind for me.

I was talking to Mollie Simpkins on Friday. She is a friend from the D.C. area, and she was telling me about her commitment to participate in, and raise money for, her 4th consecutive 3-Day walk for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Her personal fundraising goal is a mind-boggling (to me) $30,000!!! Feel free to see her story on the following link: http://www.the3day.org/site/TR?px=1298634&fr_id=1472&pg=personal So, while I donate to her cause personally, I decided to do something else - I am running 5 auctions this week on eBay. ALL the proceeds from these auctions will be donated to support Mollie's efforts.

4 of these auctions are for bass / walleye lures, and the 5th is for saltwater big game lures. So I am going to ask all of you reading this for a favor - if you know anyone who may be interested, have them use the following link to view the first eBay auction. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320516045124&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT Anyone viewing the auction can click on the link that shows Seller's Other Auctions to see the others that are running. I'll post the results on here, and anyone who wants to can see the donation after it has been sent to Mollie can see it on her page.

It's only a small gesture, but together all the small gestures can make a difference in this world.

Thanks for your help

A Day to Remember at the ponds

2010-04-09T22:09:00.004-05:00

I decided that I needed to get out to the Old Reliable ponds over lunch today. Even though there was a lot of sunshine, it was pretty chilly, with a stiff wind stopping the suns rays from feeling very warm. I went with the usual lures - a 1/24 oz. jighead and 2" grub, and the old reliable Cubby under a small weighted bobber. My tally after 40 minutes of casting:

NOTHING

NADA

ZIP

I hooked one nice largemouth but didn't bring it to hand. No bluegills. No crappie. No walleye. No trout. No catfish.

The weather here has been very cold over night, but I figured something would bite. Something ALWAYS bites here. Not today. Remember - this is the place that I go to over lunch and often bring 10-20 fish of mixed species to hand. I crimp down the barbs on my hooks just so I can shake off the trout and not have to land them and have them thrash around.

Maybe I was getting a little too cocky with these fish - the fishing gods have a way of getting even with us when we do. Or maybe, as I look back on it, it's just the way fishing is. And it's why we keep coming back - to try to figure these critters with the pea-sized brains. Well, today the pea brains kicked my butt.

But I'm planning on going back after them as the water warms.

And I WILL remember this day, because I din't like to get blanked!

I did remember my camera today, and got a few pictures. One I like one in particular. I hope you enjoy them.

Emerging may apples - spring is here!

A sapling gnawed off by a beaver

Great contrasting color

Friday in Alabama - a different lake, and still more bass.

2010-04-04T16:55:00.006-05:00

I think that when you see an egret in a tree in the fog, it's a sign of good fishing to come!

On Friday we tried to continue the success we enjoyed on Thursday, but headed out to a different lake. This one was a touch smaller than the lake on Thursday, and had not been fished at all in 2010 to this point. This is also the lake that I had previously caught my biggest largemouth ever in 2006. This particular piece of water is also full of big brim - which I love - and we had our ultralight spinning gear along in case we found some of them.

Foggy morning on Lake #2

There was a pretty dense fog as we drove along some deeply rutted dirt roads to get to the launch. The road would have been completely impassable if it was muddy. When we finally got to small launch, I could see multiple places where shad were being pushed into the banks by the bass and were being attacked. This shad pattern held all morning. Early in the morning, when we started, it was a bank pattern. As the sun rose and the fog burned off, the shad moved offshore and the bass followed them. We would take the boat out to the center of the lake and let the wind push us a cross the open water, casting at boils when we saw them, and just covering water when there was no surface action. But the bass were there, and we caught a lot of them. Lucky Craft crankbaits (Fat CB's) and LVR's ruled the day on Friday. Joey and I didn't count the fish on Friday morning, but I'd estimate we landed about 60 bass. We also found some brim. They were nice sized, but the really big ones eluded us. We primarily used Roadrunner Turbo Tails for the brim on the ultralights. the really fun part is, if we caught 15 brim, we got about 10 bass on the UL gear while fishing for the brim. Nothing over 3 pounds, but on UL spinning gear, it was all we could handle. And, the neatest occurrence of the day happened while we were catching brim. I had a typical brim on - 9" - 10" - and , as it got to the surface, I saw a HUGE bass chasing it. It never caught the brim, but gave a few quick lunges. This bass had to be in the 10-12 pound range - it was HUGE. We cast in the general area for a while, but never saw it again.

A typical sized brim from Friday

Joey with a nice bass from Friday

A bass caught on a crankbait on Friday. Crankbaits were the key on this day.

Another Friday bass for Joey

The size of the fish on this lake was very good, but not as big as the bass from the day before. With one exception. I hooked and landed a giant largemouth about a half hour into the morning. I'd put it in the same league as my biggest fish the day before. Again - no scale, so size is an estimate. 8#? 10#? 11#? Don't know . Just know it was very big. And I'm glad I caught it.

My big bass from Friday

We had to get washed up and leave for our return flight right after noon. I could have stayed there for a month, but am grateful for any time I get to spend on this property. We landed somewhere in the neighborhood of 180 largemouth in a day and a half, and some of them were truly trophy class fish. Now it's back to reality in Illinois. Our ponds will really heat up in the next 3 weeks. I'll get out to the ponds over lunch and after work, and I have plans to take some of Joeys friends out with us. Probably a newcomer or two from work as well. there should be no shortage of fishing adventures to write about in the coming months. Come along for the ride!

How do you determine if a bass trip has been a good one? A bad case of BASS THUMB!!!

Back from 'Bama - Thursday's recap

2010-04-03T22:55:00.010-05:00

Another lake resident swim aways

My son and I returned home from our trip to Alabama on Friday nite. I wrote about our trip last year, so my readers may be familiar with the lakes from a prior post. This marks the 8th time I've been on the property fishing for bass and brim, and it is truly astonishing at times. But, it is fishing (rather than simply catching) That was played out to the extreme this past February. The BassMaster Classic was held in Alabama on Lay Lake. Extreme cold and muddy water made it a challenging tournament, but KVD ended up winning again. The same time as the Classic was going on, some co-workers who were working the Classic fished the property I was just on. These are GOOD bass anglers - I would rate them as considerably better than me. On the lake we fished on Thursday, 4 people fished it hard in Feb. and caught, as I understand it, 4 bass. All day. So, it is NOT like shooting fish in a barrel. Last year we were here for 2 - half days of fishing and we landed 24 bass between us. Not bad fishing, but not great number-wise, either.

Alabama just came off its coldest winter ever. The water temp at the surface is just now approaching 70 degrees. But 6 feet down it is still in the 50's. In the past 2 weeks, they have had the longest sustained warm spell of the year, and it has turned on the fish. Timing can be everything, and we were fortunate enough to have GOOD timing on our sides this time.

The islands that were loaded with fish

The large pond / small lake we fished on Thursday is about 40 acres in size (I'm terrible at estimating acreage, so that might be close, or maybe not). There are a coupe of extended points, 2 small islands, and a bunch of shoreline. I believe the lake is about 15 feet deep at the deepest. We generally cruise the bank about a cast away from shore, and pepper the shoreline. The usual go-to baits are Lucky Craft LVR's, big Culprit worms, and spinnerbaits. I like to try different stuff - baits the fish may never have seen. On this trip, I brought along a bunch of swimbaits, some Strike King Red Eye Shad, Strike King Ocho's, tubes, and some other favorites. This was also the first trip for Joey since he broke his arm last week, and we weren't sure how he's be able to do with regard to hook setting, reeling, or landing fish. It took some adjustments, but overall he did great!

Joey does pretty well for a kid with a recently broken arm!

Another NICE bass for Joey

To make a long story short, we slayed the bass. While I was launching the boat, Joey was hooked up from the dock. And, the average size of these fish was the best I've ever seen here (or anywhere else, for that matter). Last year's average size was good; this year's was better. I lost track of how many 4-5 pound fish we caught. I got 4 that were over 7 pounds, and 1 on Thursday that was pushing my biggest ever.

Here is the tough part - I brought along a Weigh-In scale, and it died before it weighed a fish. Completely pissed me off, because I like to know the REAL size of the fish I catch. For personal edification only. I had to estimate weight on all the fish on the trip. Now, understand, I've caught a lot of bass in my life, and I think I'm a pretty honest judge of weight. A lot of "10 pounders" are really 6-1/2 - 7 pound fish. If you are accustomed to judging the weights of fish and think my estimates are off - tell me! I won't be offended. Someone like Tami Curtis, who fishes professionally for bass, may be able to glance at my pictures and say "That fish you think is a 7 pounder is actually closer to 6" Let me know!! On another note, I have NO tolerance for gear that doesn't work, so I'm getting a Boga Grip for the next trip. Nothing electronic to fail.

Another nice bass on Thursday

In the morning we got our fish casting toward the banks. LVR's and plastics ruled. While experimenting with a big Optima Line-Thru swimbait I got a big bass. LOVE that swimbait! When we fished around the islands in the morning, I put on a flipping jig and Brush Hog. It caught bass on every obvious piece of wood I threw at!

Jig-n-Brush Hog fish

After a break for lunch, we returned to this lake for the afternoon/ evening. Joey and I figured we got around 35 bass in the morning, and we decided to try to keep count in the afternoon. That proved more difficult than we thought. The bass were beginning to bust shad against the banks, or out in the open water, and the shad bite intensified as the day went on. I got another BIG fish on a 4.5" Strike King Bleeding Tube. We caught fish everywhere. When we got back to the islands in the afternoon, I decided the throw a spinnerbait and bang it off the wood. The results were amazing - I believe I got 15 bass by throwing into the wood on the small islands. As the sun starting dropping, the fish starting blasting isolated schools of shad all over the lake, as well as pushing them up on the bank. My last fish of the day came at dusk and inhaled a Lucky Craft Fat CB shallow crankbait. I believe this bass broke the 10 pound barrier.

The count at the end of the afternoon - 35 in the AM, 78 in the afternoon - a total of 112 bass. And we still had Friday morning to fish! Enjoy the pictures.

This bass fell to the Optima Line-thru swimbait

This bass thought a Bleeding Tube was a shad - WRONG

This may be my biggest bass ever - 10? smaller? bigger?

The end of the day

Wiped out after a long day on the water

The pheasant revealed, and the panfish are biting

2010-03-29T21:02:00.003-05:00

In my previous post, I challenged people to find the pheasant being pointed by the English Setter in the photo. When I took the picture, I didn't see the bird! Well, a few of you did see it, some did not, and a few weren't sure. Here you go:

The original photo

The hen pheasant was sitting tight on the other side of the tree! Click the photo for a better view

I made it back to the ponds over lunch again today, and the bluegills were fairly active, even though it is still pretty cold. Cubby jigs about 2 feet under a weighted bobber were the key. If there was wood in the water, there were usually panfish around it. The wood will absorb heat more quickly than the water and the panfish flock to dark wood early in the season. No real big ones today, but a good lunch. Totaled 8 'gils - all released.

I will be in Alabama on Thursday and Friday, trying to put my hands on some BIG bass. Last year, my son got one a little over 8#. It looks like we might hit it PERFECT this year. You'll get a full report over the weekend. My son is going back with me, but he has a handicap this year - he broke his arm on Friday. Luckily it was the left arm, so he can still cast and set hooks. We'll see how it goes. He'll undoubtedly catch a 12 pounder while I won't break 5!